Best Kept Secret
by Cearta Day
Summary: HIATUS The days are numbered, the stakes are high, and when everyone has a secret, it's hard to know who to trust. Full summary inside\
1. Prologue

Don't, won't, and shant own digimon (or The Fray's song Trust Me because I love them and feel like I subconsciously stole the last line from that song).

Summary: The Digidestined have kept the Digital World a secret for years but will one nosy investigator and a blue pill be their demise? The children are slowly losing their memory of the Digital world while the latest evil rises up. Join them in a race against the clock, as they spend their last few weeks as digidestined fighting for digimon, humans, and their minds.

Rated T for themes like death and possibly some swearing. I really just gave it a high rating, so I was free to write whatever I wanted.

Includes Sorato and some minor Takari (most often just friendship). Also some Koumi if you squint really hard and tilt your head 90 degrees to the left.

* * *

><p><strong><span>Prologue<span>**

"Good morning, Odaiba! This is Channel Nine News. Here's Kimiko with an update on the recent monster attacks."

"Thanks, Ko.

"Investigators have been under way trying to dig up any information they can on these monsters. When fur, scales, or metal these creatures have left on the scene is scanned it registers as a computer code as opposed to a string of DNA. This has left researchers baffled on what to make of this.

"Although no one in Japan has come forward, children from all around the world have claimed these monsters came out of their computer from another world and are not trying to harm us, but I'd tell that to the millions of dollars in damages they're at fault for.

"Some of our very own citizens have listened to them and attempted to befriend them, but many have ended up injured and hospitalized from getting in the way of their rampages. Others have tried to contact this other world through use of a back door on their computer or even contacting it as though it were a spirit through Ouija boards or meditation , but our researchers are still hard at work to bring us solid answers.

"Monster attacks have continued to pop up all around the world causing bystanders to panic, but the Japanese government has assured us that everything is under control. Here's an exclusive interview with the Prime Minister that you won't hear anywhere else."

Tai angrily pushed down the button to turn the TV off. "They're not attacking anyone," he growled. "People are just too stupid to move."

Tai was sick of everyone talking about the "monster attacks" like they had a choice. There were new digidestined pouring into the Digital World by the boat load, and it wasn't the Digimon's fault they had to find somewhere to live. He thought it sounded great at first that the portal between worlds was widening. He'd get to see Agumon and the others all the time, but now he wasn't so sure how great this was. Everyone was panicking, and the Digimon were shown as horrible creatures that were sent to wreak havoc. All people could talk about was these awful attacks, and Tai was tired of smiling and playing dumb when all he wanted to do was defend the world and Digimon he had grown to love.

"Hey, looks who's up before noon!" Kari joked as she walked into the family room, Gatomon by her side, to find Tai slumped on the couch. "Are you ready to go?"

He sprung out of his seat. "Yeah, let's get out of here. Everyone's gone crazy."

"Have you been watching the news again?" Concern shone in her red-tinted eyes.

"Hey, I have to keep up to date," he defended. "Come on, they're probably all waiting for us."

She looked to the clock hanging by the door. "It's only 9:00. You said we had to be there at 9:30."

"I only said that because I didn't want you waking me up earlier than I had to get up. You may take an hour for your hair, but I don't."

"Well, that's obvious," Gatomon teased.

"Hey!"

The siblings and Gatomon headed out of the apartment. The walk to the middle school was only a few blocks, so they traveled without urgency knowing their friends would already expect them to be late.

Kari let her mind wander as she treaded along the familiar path on a comfortable spring morning. Countless times she walked this way, for school, for an emergency trip to the Digital World, in rain, snow, and sunshine. She was glad at least this was constant in the ever-changing world around her.

She felt horrible about all of the trouble the Digimon were causing. She knew they didn't mean it. Like when Agumon and Parrotmon fought all those years ago, they didn't know what they were doing. She wished everyone could see that, and the two worlds could learn to live side by side, but maybe that dream was still too far away.

"Kari, watch out!"

Her brother pushed her towards the street just as she felt something sharp graze her arm. Luckily it only cut through her jacket sleeve. She looked up to see a Kuwagamon circling around for another go.

Thinking fast, Kari looked to Gatomon. "Ready for some action?"

The cat digimon smirked. "And I thought it was getting boring around here."

Kari swiftly took the digivice from the side pocket of her backpack and called, "Gatomon, digivolve!"

In a flashy explosion of light that lasted merely a second, the cat transformed into an angel just as Kuwagamon rushed at them.

"Celestial arrow!" Angewomon shot out an arrow from her gloved hand that zigged directly for Kuwagamon.

It didn't even try to evade the attack as it shot him right through his wide hanging moth. It shrieked in pain before flying jaggedly over some buildings and retreating.

Angewomon promptly digivolved back to Gatomon shaking her head in disappointment. "Weakling. None of the fun digimon came to the Human world."

"Kari," Tai got his sister's attention and gestured to the surrounding crowd, some staring at Gatomon, some at her, a couple still screaming, and many whispering.

"Uh-oh." Honestly, she hadn't noticed any of them through the ordeal.

A rather large man who had been in the center of the whispering stepped forward and boldly glared down at Kari. "Are you one of them?"

"One of w-what?" She stuttered trying to meet the man's eyes.

He scowled. "You're with those monsters! That cat, er-angel, is one of them!"

Eyes switched from Kari to Gatomon. "Uh… meow?"

The whispers in the crowd grew louder. A few reached Kari's ears.

"It looks like a normal cat…"

"How did it do that?"

"The girl told the cat to transform!"

"But how? Magic?"

"She must be a witch!"

"A demon!"

"She's a monster!"

The man's scowl turned into a demonic smirk. "Hear that? You're just like them- a monster."

Tai pulled his sister back and stepped up to the man, standing tall but still looking like a child next to him. "You can't talk to my sister like that!"

He leaned down, spitting into Tai's face as the taunting words came out, "What are you gonna do about it?"

* * *

><p>Matt, Izzy, Sora, Joe, TK, and Patamon sat around the middle school's computer room waiting for the Kamiyas to finally arrive.<p>

"Are you sure they're coming?" Izzy asked no one in particular for the umpteenth time.

"Yes!" Matt answered exasperatedly from his position lounging in the corner of the computer room with his feet on the edge of a table. "Izzy, could you _stop._ It's fine. Tai's always late."

Izzy turned to face Matt. Impatience shone in his every movement. "Today is not the day to be late! I'm sure Gennai has called us about everything that's been going on with Digimon in the Real World."

TK frowned from his spot by the door. "Then how come he wouldn't ask the 02 kids to come? They could help."

"I don't know, and I won't know until Tai and Kari get here."

As if on cue, frantic footsteps and then a series of loud thumps on the door came.

TK went to open the door. Izzy coughed and gave him a pointed look. "I know what to do," TK assured. He called, "Digi, digi?"

"Mon, mon!" growled Tai causing TK to jump at the aggressive response. He unlocked the door and the Kamiyas came bursting in followed by Gatomon who promptly slammed and locked the door.

"So what's the excuse this time?" Sora asked casually waiting for Tai's latest exaggerated story.

"No time," Tai panted as Kari already made to open the digi-port on the computer.

"Did something happen?" Sora asked now sounding concerned.

"Big crowd, Gatomon digivolved, big guy, I hit him, he chased us, crowd followed, we go now!" Tai recapped quickly still trying to compose himself.

Matt put a finger to his chin. He was extremely calm compared to Tai. "Did you think he'd get amnesia and forget about Gatomon?"

"No," Tai spat, annoyed that Matt couldn't tell how urgent it was they got out of here. "I had a reason, but he and the crowd are going to get here, and Kari and I can't be here."

Kari held up her digivice looking around the room to the others. "Everyone ready?"

There were a few nods as they all crowded around the computer with digivices out.

"Digi-port open!"

A bright, pale blue light burst from the computer screen and then receded back taking them all with it. Mere moments later, they were being catapulted onto a grassy terrain into a messy pile.

"Please get your foot out of my face, Tai."

"I can't until TK gets off of me."

"Matt, your hair is in my face."

"Stop breathing on my hair!"

"Would all of you get off? This can't be good for my rib cage."

They eventually untangled themselves leaving Joe to get up last delicately unbending his arching back. "Izzy, why is it you know everything about the Digital World and never bothered to figure out how to make us land on our feet?"

"Save that for the cats," Gatomon purred standing upright and having a bemused look from watching the humans.

"I see you've finally arrived," a voice called from on top of the nearby grassy hill.

"Gennai!" Izzy called back as they all made their way towards him. "I apologize for being late. I hope we didn't keep you waiting for too long."

"No, not at all. We still have plenty of time left, and Mimi still has to arrive through a portal from America."

"Time left?" TK chuckled. "Is there some sort of a time limit?"

Gennai didn't meet the boy's eyes. "I'll explain everything."

The digidestined settled into a loose circle around Gennai. Tai, nearest to Gennai, was still a bit ruffled up by the morning's ordeal. Were digimon really that bad that people would automatically accuse his sister of being a monster, even a demon, for being involved with them?

To Tai's left was TK, propped up on his knees with one hand robotically stroking Patamon, waiting earnestly for what Gennai had to say and the reason the rest of his team weren't invited.

Next was Joe, checking his watch every few moments. Even though it was Saturday, he had a class to get to by 9:30. It actually started at 10:00, but Joe didn't want to have to deal with the possibility of being late.

Beside him, Kari leaned back onto her elbows still trying to grip onto what happened. The whole thing was outrageous. That man scared her more than an army of Flymon, but she still didn't think Tai should've hurt him. He didn't understand that Gatomon was different from the digimon that had been on the news.

Then came Sora, sitting close to Matt and whispering something about how Gennai must want them to come out and speak on behalf of the digimon. Up until then, they had all decided it was best to stay away from the media.

Matt leaned back listening to her prediction before suggesting that they could simply be asked to round up the digimon and let the world forget this ever happened.

Last in the circle was Izzy unable to sit still. He wanted information that he'd been deprived of for far too long. Would Mimi just hurry up?

Once Mimi arrived, with a quick explanation of being held up at the mall, and took a spot on the end next to Izzy, Gennai began.

"Now, where should I begin-"

"Wait," Mimi cut in. "Where's Yolei?"

"And Davis, Cody, and Ken?" TK added.

If TK wasn't mistaken, Gennai's demeanor became darker, colder. "They won't be joining us anymore."

Kari furrowed her brow. "Do you mean ever?"

Gennai sounded cold and robotic, like the friendly, old man thing was all a façade. "Let me explain.

"As I'm sure you have all noticed, the digimon have taken full advantage of the open portal between your world and mine. This has become a problem since the majorities of humans are uneducated on our kind and have turned them into some spectacle instead of just accepting them for what they are."

"I'll say," Tai muttered.

"In addition to that, the new digidestined popping up haven't been helpful. They don't understand their responsibilities and have been abusing their digimons' power."

"Like the village of Koromon that an American digidestined nearly destroyed," Sora said.

"That took us nearly three weeks to rebuild," Matt added bitterly.

"And three Koromon were injured," Kari remarked sadly.

"Yes, yes, can I finish?" Gennai silenced everyone and continued, "Because of all of this, the sovereigns of the Digital World, Azulongmon, Zhuqiaomon, Ebonwumon, and Baihumon, have decided to cut off connections between the Human and Digital Worlds. The memories of everyone on Earth are being erased as we speak, so they have no recollection of the Digimon.

"But saying that, the Digital World still needs to be able to acquire help from an outside force when needed, so the eight of you have been brought here so you won't be present in your world for the memory wipe. Now I'm done."

Held in cries of protest came from all of them before they finally settled on speaking one at a time.

"Gennai, they can't do that!" Tai yelped.

"And why not?" The elder remained calm and collected as the surrounding children grew agitated.

"Because, I mean, we don't get a say? It's _our_ world."

"I'm just doing what is necessary for my world."

Kari cut in, "Are they erasing the minds of everyone in the Real World right now?"

He nodded solemnly.

"But what about the 02 digidestined? They didn't do anything!"

"They were unnecessary and easily disposable. You all are the only defenders of the Digital World needed."

TK looked outraged. "Unnecessary? They saved your world a few months ago if you haven't forgotten."

An almost twisted smile appeared on Gennai's face. "No, I haven't forgotten, but they will."

Sora spoke up, "Gennai, please, have you really thought about this? How do you expect us to come here and defend the Digital World if no one back home can know about it?"

"It'll have to be kept a secret, a secret you must keep for your lives and the life of the Digital World depend on it."

Izzy, who had previously been listening and thinking over the information, looked to Gennai. "What problems are there still in the Digital World that would need our assistance?"

"Oh, it's always something. Now, the memory wipe should be completed by now, so you can all return except for you, Izzy; I need to speak with you."

No one made to move. They all sat in a daze or glaring up at Gennai.

The man sighed. "Don't worry. This is for the best. When you're older, you will understand."

* * *

><p><span>So a few notes...<span>

This is only the prologue which takes place a few months after 02, but the actual story takes place four years after. The story is also formatted into a 5 week period (each chapter is a day).

The Real World and The Human World are the same thing. I recall (pardon if I'm mistaken) that some characters in the dub, like Kari, called Earth the "Real World" which I found funny because the Digital World is supposed to be just as real as the human world.

Gennai's pretty OOC and will be for the whole story.

I got the idea for writing this after imagining a scene where TK knew about the Digital World, but Ken didn't. I've posted that scene as a seperate one-shot called Help. I'm really looking forward to writing this and will be following through with it 'til the very end!

Thanks for reading! Reviews are greatly appreciated!


	2. W1 Monday

On with the story! This takes place approximately four years after 02 so ages are: Joe: 21/Tai, Matt, and Sora: 20/Izzy and Mimi: 19/TK and Kari: 16. I bumped up everyone but TK and Kari's ages up a year so they would be the only ones still in high school.

When a character's thinking something I'll write it _'like this.'_

Enter the investigator and the pill...

* * *

><p><span>Week One<span>

**Monday**

Benjamin Mori was having a Monday morning like any other. He burned his hand on his coffee, the secretary forgot his name, and he got all the way to his desk before realizing he was wearing two different shoes.

Mori let out an exasperated sigh. The shoes just added to his miserable look. He had a prominent case of five o'clock shadow, and his dark brown hair was a matted mess. Mori also had a wide build and a tall stature making him out to look much older than his early thirties.

His morning wasn't going great, and his anxiety grew upon getting the call that no one wanted: his boss needed to talk to him.

Mori sat at his boss's desk while his boss, Mr. Raincheck, fiddled through a few papers only having acknowledged him with a short grunt. Mori was confused since he couldn't recall doing anything that would cause this. His boss hadn't tried to speak, so he carefully asked, "Why'd you need me, sir?"

Mr. Raincheck glanced up quickly before returning to his papers. "You're fired."

He paused and then, "What are you talking about, sir? Why? I can't be-"

"Fired, Mori, you're fired." He had now turned his full attention on the other man. "You take your work too seriously. As an investigator, you must stay detached from the people involved, and you've become too… clingy with your last two cases."

He folded his arms over his broad chest in protest. "Clingy? Please, I could never see the Ichigos again for all I care."

Mr. Raincheck shook his head. "No, Mori, you couldn't. You went to extreme measures. You _stalked_ that family. You're lucky they didn't press charges.

"This is a place of business. We gather information the right way."

He stopped himself from scowling at his boss. "I'm just doing my job and don't I get a warning?"

His boss shook his head slowly. "If you actually listened to me instead of doing things your own way, you would be aware that you've received plenty of warnings."

Realizing Mr. Raincheck had already made up his mind, Mori began to beg hopelessly. "Sir, please, there has to be something I can do."

Mr. Raincheck spoke with finality. "There isn't. Be out of here by the end of the day. You'll get a paycheck for five more weeks, and in that time, I expect you to find a new job."

Mori sulked out of the office, a million thoughts circling around in his head. He needed this job to support his family. How was he supposed to get a new job? He'd been an employee here ever since he graduated college! Getting fired after working here for years will forever be burned into his work history. He was ruined.

_'I can't get another job. I have to get_ this_ job back,'_ He thought to himself. Now with a new purpose, Mori made his way across the busy workplace to what had been deemed the "Unsolvable Pile" because it was full of cases that no one had been able to crack. _'I solve a case from here, and they'll have to take me back.'_

He rummaged through the papers and articles before a newspaper headline caught his eye: "Monster Attacks Shake up Japan." Mori skimmed the old, faded article. _'Yes, if I crack a story like this, they'll be begging me to come back.'_

* * *

><p>"Alright, Izzy, you made us all come to Kari's apartment and you've asked a bunch of pointless questions. Now can we know why?"<p>

Izzy didn't bother looking up from his clipboard that he was furiously jotting down notes on. "They weren't pointless, Matt. I now know that all of you can successfully recall most if not all of our adventures in the Digital World."

Tai fell to his knees dramatically in the center of the room. "Oh praise the Lord! It's a miracle! I can remember the past eight years clear as day! The brain transplant was a success!"

"That's not funny, Tai," Izzy said. His tone was serious and agitated, but he still didn't look up from the clipboard.

Trying to release any tension in the room, Kari asked, "What are you writing?"

"Basic protocol. I'll need to record every detail to better track the pill's progression."

"Pill? Like for a headache?" Mimi piped.

Izzy finally pried his eyes from the clipboard, shocked at himself for mentioning the pill without explaining it. He surveyed the room around him. No one else seemed particularly shocked considering they had no idea what the pill was for.

Mimi stood by the wall ever impatient for an answer. This was spring break for her college back in America, so she was in town visiting. Her attention span seemed to lessen ever since she'd slipped into the mold of a New Yorker. Tai still sat on the floor of the family room having not bothered to get up after his earlier display. The couch and chairs formed a semi-circle around him and the chair to the left of him had TK and Kari both perched on an arm on either side. On the couch was Matt with Sora slightly leaning on him, and behind the couch stood Joe with a look of impatience to match Mimi's. Izzy was in the chair to the right of Tai, still looking around the room to see if anyone had a bad reaction to the mention of a pill.

Izzy sighed, bent over to go through the bag by his feet, and took out a tiny, white bottle that he held up for them all to see.

"These are the pills. We will all be taking one."

"I've gotten all of my vitamin C today, thanks," Joe joked.

Izzy ignored the comment and kept a solemn expression on his face. "Ever since the Memory wipe, I've spent the last four years creating these. One of these pills will cause you to lose all memory of the Digital World."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "That's a nice, little science project and all, but why would we take one?"

"Yeah, we can't forget about the Digi-World. We're the only ones who can defend it," TK said.

Izzy took in a deep breath knowing how much talking he'd have to do to convince them. He couldn't tell them everything, not the real reason, not yet. "It can get along without us. Through the years, we've formed a whole army of digimon to battle any evil that might inhabit the Digital World. Our very own digimon partners are able to digivolve to ultimate without our presence. We're not needed anymore."

There was a pause as everyone thought over Izzy's last words. Could they really not be needed?

Sora broke the silence. "Even if they don't need us, why would we want to forget?"

The redheaded genius knew this question was coming. "We're not kids anymore. It's time to move on." A few of the digidestined, the people who he had come to call friends, opened their mouths to speak, but Izzy kept going, "TK, how many day of school have you missed because of some distress call from the Digital World?"

Counting the high total in his head, his expression turned sheepish. "Um… a few."

Satisfied with the answer, he turned to Joe. "You were supposed to be done with your required volunteer hours at the hospital last year. Care to tell us why you don't have all of your hours in?"

Joe defended, "I've volunteered as much as I can! I have other things to do what with studying and the Digital World!"

"Matt, why did your band break up again?"

"I was always busy," He paused for a moment before realizing what Izzy was getting at, "with the Digital World." His expression turned to a scowl.

Izzy addressed the whole group. "We've given up our lives for the Digital World, and it's time that we take them back. If we take this pull, if we forget about the Digital World, then we'll have our lives back, and the Digital World will still be protected."

Tai stood. Izzy made some good points, but he couldn't just leave the Digital World behind. He faced the group knowing that, as the leader, he had to be diplomatic, "Alright, we're either all taking the pill or none of us are. Who's for Izzy's pill?"

The room stayed unresponsive and still. Some were still thinking things over; some made their decision and were looking around the room to see if anyone dared to speak.

"I'm in," Matt said casually earning him a few bewildered looks that he simply shrugged off. "Izzy's right. They don't need us, and we don't need them anymore."

Joe raised his hand slightly to indicate he sided with Matt before adding, "I think it's time to move on."

There was another long silence as no one was willing to voice their opinion one way or another. This was such a big choice; they needed time to think.

Kari spoke up, her voice gentle, "What about our partners?"

Even Izzy hadn't thought of how to answer that. "Well, we'll, uh, forget them too."

"Aren't they worth keeping our memory for?" She pressed.

Thankfully for Izzy, Sora cut in, "They'll understand that this is for the best. We're letting them take charge of the Digital World while we take charge of ourselves." She looked to Izzy, an encouraging but slightly fearful smile on her face. "Izzy, I'm for the pill."

Tai recapped, "Four yeses from Izzy, Matt, Sora, and Joe, a no from Kari. Everybody else? Mimi?"

The girl in question looked panicked. "This is all too fast! You can't expect me to know right now. Could I have some time?"

"There is no time!" Izzy snapped causing everyone in the room to turn their attention at him, but he didn't notice. "We have to do this now! We should have forgotten four years ago along with the rest of the world, but it is Gennai's fault we're stuck like this, always lying, and fighting, and keeping secrets!"

Mimi continued to stare at Izzy, unwanted moisture entering her eyes. Izzy rarely snapped at anyone, especially not her.

He took a calming breath before continuing in a controlled voice, "Through all my research, I've never steered us wrong. You all have to trust me that this pill is the best choice for us."

TK took his eyes from the floor to Izzy. "Even if it's not what I want to happen, it is what's best."

Kari never met Izzy's eyes but spoke in a strong voice, "I'll do it."

Mimi was the last to respond. Quietly she said, "I trust you, Izzy."

Tai nodded slightly turning to the redhead, "Alright, go ahead."

Izzy stood and went around the room placing a pill in each digidestined's hand.

Sora studied the light blue, elliptical object. "Don't we need water or something?"

Izzy shook his head as he took the last pill in his own hand. "No, they're chewable."

"Nifty," Joe commented with a hint of sarcasm.

Tai spoke in a commanding voice. "On the count of three, we chew. One…Two…Three!"

He threw the pill in his mouth and swallowed quickly. He then looked around the room, taking in each of his friends in turn. For the most part, they looked a bit haunted having realized what they'd just done, but there was no turning back now.

Tai asked, "What now?"

Izzy answered, "The pill will take about five weeks for the full effect to kick in."

"Five weeks until our memories of the Digital World are gone forever." He now didn't speak to anyone in particular. He just felt that needed to be said aloud as if to make it more real.

Izzy nodded. "I'll be doing weekly status reports to see how the pill is affecting everyone, but for now there's nothing left to do." He stood as if to leave. "I should really be going. See all of you at my house next Monday at 4 o'clock sharp."

Gradually, each of them left after Izzy leaving only Tai and Kari. Kari had barely spoken a word since taking the pill causing Tai to grow concerned.

"Hey," he started nudging her from behind the chair she still perched on, "This is for the best."

"I know," She sighed. "I just wish we had more time."

Tai nodded in understanding before leaving to pick up some stuff in his old room before heading back to his college dorm. On his way out, he stopped beside their mother's potted, purple daisies.

"Tai?" His sister called.

He ignored her, too focused on what he saw. Mixed within the dirt, he spotted a small, light blue pill.

* * *

><p>Bum, Bum, Bum! ... Sorry, I thought it was necessary.<p>

Who didn't take the pill? Who's betrayed everyone? Anybody got a guess?

Thanks for reading! Reviews = motivation


	3. W1 Tuesday

In addition to Digimon, I don't own Hot Pockets, but how cool would that be? I mean, you would have a lifetime supply of Hot Pockets... and a lot of money.

I know nothing about Japan's school system, and I'm not going to pretend I do, so everything is based off of the USA's school system.

Enter Mori's family and a deeper understanding of the last four years...

* * *

><p><span>Tuesday<span>

Mori woke up suddenly to his sore shoulder welcoming a new wave of pain. _'Ugh, I've got to get that checked out.'_

He opened each eye one at a time to find a small child, no older than seven, jumping up and down on his bed.

"Daddy, you're awake!" He cheered.

His mood and tone instantly brightened. He smirked at his son's antics. "Shouldn't you be at school?"

The child stood on the bed pouting dramatically with big, chocolate brown eyes that could captivate anyone. "But I don't wanna go!"

"You have to, Mikey. We've all got responsibilities."

Mikey crossed his arms with a loud 'Humph!' "You're not goin' to work! I'm not goin' to school!"

Mori's smirk grew into a grimace. How had his son known? He hadn't even told his wife! "Now where'd you hear a thing like that?"

"Mr. Rainy called, but Mommy wasn't here." Mikey had taken to referring to Mori's boss as "Mr. Rainy" since he's always putting Mori in a "rainy" mood.

_'Why would he tell my kid I got fired? That guy really is out to get me.'_ "No, no, I still have to work today" _'just not at a job.'_

Mikey looked utterly confused for a moment before deciding his dad must be right, like always. Then, if it was possible, the child's eyes grew wider with fear. "I still have to go to school today." It was a statement, not a question.

Mori nodded slowly. "Yes, yes you do. Let's go." And with that, he swooped his son's legs out from under him causing him to squeal as he fell into his father's arms.

Mikey mock protested as he was carried out of the bedroom bridal style into the kitchen. His father plopped him down onto a chair and went to his wife, Miya, by the sink to give her a good morning kiss.

His wife was a beautiful girl, a couple years younger than Mori. She had long, flowing brown hair with natural auburn highlights, and she stood a little under a foot shorter than her husband.

"How are you today?" He asked while going for the coffee pot.

She smiled lightly. "Better, I've been sleeping we-" She was cut short by a round of rough, hacking coughs that had her leaning over and clutching onto the sink for support.

Mori cringed. That cough, the constant reminder of what condition his love was in, yanked on his heart strings. Miya had been sick for awhile now with Tuberculosis, yet another reason he needed his job and the money that came with it. "It's good to know you've been doing better but still take it easy, alright?"

She sighed. Miya never liked feeling like the victim or a burden, but her illness had been holding her back more and more lately. None the less, she put on a reassuring smile. "I know. I'll be careful."

Knowing his wife wouldn't want him hovering over her, he turned to search through the cupboard for a cup. "That's good to hear."

"Hun?"

"Hmm?"

"Other cupboard."

Mori opened the cupboard to the left of the one he'd been searching in. He grinned slightly and took out a small coffee cup. "What would I do without you?"

She brightened at that, always glad to be appreciated. Miya caught a glimpse of the time the stove read: 8:34. "Oh! You better get going to work!"

He looked at the clock but refused to meet her eyes, knowing if he did, she'd be sure to catch onto his guilty demeanor. "Right, I'll go get dressed and be off!"

He went back into his bedroom not only to get ready but to retrieve from his suitcase the delicately folded newspaper article. _'Today, I'll need to do a lot of research.'_

* * *

><p>"Tai, get your ass out of bed! You have to be across campus in ten minutes!"<p>

And with that, a pillow flew across the room and whammed right into the mess of brown hair that was Tai Kamiya.

He sat up with a start, alert, expecting it to have been a threat or some sort of digimon. Instead he saw the very amused Matt standing by the doorway to their shared college dorm room.

"Oh gee thanks," Tai said bitterly. He was definitely not a morning person.

The blonde shrugged. "I do it because I care."

Tai rubbed the back of his head. For a pillow it caused a good amount of damage. "Could you care a little less?"

Matt smirked. "I wish. Seriously, you should've been up forever ago. I just stopped here to grab a textbook." He made his way across their cluttered room that consisted of two single beds, a large mahogany desk, a small laptop, a rolly chair, piles of unwashed clothes, various pieces of paper, and other much more useless items that would fall under the category of junk. He moved aside a few boxes of Hot Pockets to find his book wedged against the wall by a soccer ball.

Tai rubbed his eyes and groggily sat up. He knew he would be late for his next class; it was really only a matter of how late. This meant that he could spend a few minutes questioning Matt. Since discovering an uneaten pill, he'd been wracking his brain to figure out which of his friends would betray the others after all they'd been through. He had faith in all of them so decided it only fair to consider everyone a suspect.

"So," Tai started as casually as he could, "what do you think of this whole pill business?"

Matt sat his bag on the desk and attempted to shove his textbook into it. "I get where Izzy's coming from. Maybe, we don't need the Digital World anymore. It's been getting in the way."

The brunette raised an eyebrow. "In the way of what?"

Matt shot Tai an incredulous look while swinging his bag over his shoulder. "In the way of everything. We're always running off, disappearing without any explanation, getting hurt without being able to get help because then we'd have to explain what happened. The Digital World has always come first which is what it deserves because it's done so much for us," Matt paused, clearly doubting his last words, "but maybe it's done all it can and so have we.

"I need to get going, See ya."

"Bye," Tai called after Matt had already begun making his way down the hall. He sat up in bed a few more moments, taking in what he'd just heard. _'He sounds like he's ready to move on… but he didn't sound that sure about. No, Matt's my best friend. It couldn't be him… It could be anyone.'_

* * *

><p>The investigator sat at a computer at the local library, disgruntled. Being unable to go home and having no job to go to, his research had to be done at the only place where he could freely access the internet.<p>

He had read over the article several times and each time grew more and more frustrated. This reporter kept rambling on about different sightings but none of them matched up. One was a giant parrot in Columbia, the next an army of green slugs in Canada, and then living dinosaurs in Japan! None of the creatures or places was connected. The only thing they had in common was the time frame, and the time was the strangest thing about this article; it was only four years old! He was around, so why hadn't he heard of the giant dinosaur that was lurking in his backyard? The article alone gave him next to nothing to work with, but if something like this really happened, there had to be more information.

This leads to Mori desperately searching around the web and the news for anything else about giant monsters besides folklore. He had hit several dead ends. Many newspapers and news stations didn't have anything useful, the occasional Big Foot story, but he knew in his gut it was something bigger than that. After all, Big Foot never made it into the Unsolvable Pile.

Mori closed out of the internet for a moment to look back at the article. If the words weren't working, it was time to study the picture. It was a pretty convincing action shot. It had some giant, red dinosaur being held back by what resembled a ten-foot werewolf. If he didn't know better he would've said it was a screenshot from a movie. Looking further back into the picture, the bystanders were swarming around them. Many were panicking and looked to be in mid-run except for one boy that had caught his eye.

This boy stood tall, watching the fight with a look of…annoyance? How was he not terrified? The child looked no older than 15! _'He must know something.'_

* * *

><p>Kari put her tray down on the table in the most menacing way someone of her gentle nature could. The tray made a light "thump!" causing TK to look up from the math homework he had been trying to comprehend.<p>

"Hey," He greeted casually. "Are you alright?"

She gave him an incredulous look before silently opening her water.

TK blinked confusedly. "If you're mad at me for some reason, why would you sit here for lunch?"

She never looked up, now beginning to unwrap the plastic covering around her sandwich. "I always sit here."

"Right…" He turned his attention back to problem number seven. _'So if x=23 and-'_

"How could you be so ready to take that pill?"

TK sighed audibly. He should've expected she wanted to talk.

"Won't you miss Patamon?" Her voice sounded pained as she was probably thinking of her own partner.

"Of course but…" He trailed off not knowing how to explain himself.

"But what?"

He set his pencil down knowing his homework would have to wait. "You know things haven't been the same."

There was that disbelieving look of denial again. "No, I don't know that."

"Yes, you do. It's not like when we were younger and the digimon were our best friends. We only ever see them to fight and because of all the trouble we'd get into if someone found them, they aren't even allowed to travel to our world anymore, and we only go to the Digital World when there's some mission or digimon wreaking havoc. It's more like a business relationship than a friendship."

It hurt TK to admit it out loud, but everything he said was true, and Kari knew it. She still felt the need to keep arguing. This was her and TK's childhood, and she couldn't accept that he was all for giving it up. "We go to the Digital World more than that. Last month we spent a whole week there rounding up all of the Numamon that had wandered off."

TK countered, "And our partners were only with us part of the time. They had other things to do."

She placed her fists on her hips under the table. "So there's nothing in the Digital World you're going to miss?"

He ran a hand through his hair not wanting to answer the question. He really didn't want to have to think about something as depressing as his childhood slipping away during his only free period. "I'll miss everything about it, Patamon, helping Digimon, being part of something bigger, but good things don't last. We have to keep moving forward."

"You won't miss it," Kari muttered sadly while focusing on something past TK. "We won't even have the memories."

The blonde's eyes widened slightly. "Please tell me you're not looking at who I think you're looking at." She didn't respond, so he twisted his neck to see Davis Motomiya sitting a few tables away with a majority of the school's soccer team.

She had a wistful look to her as she drew her eyes away from him the spiky-haired brunette and back to TK. "He was our best friend."

"He doesn't know that." TK frowned. No conversation about their old team ever ended well. After the memory-wipe, TK and Kari had attempted to reconnect with them, but without the bond implemented by the Digital World, the relationships would never be the same. Davis was merely their peer; Yolei and Cody were only TK's neighbors, and Ken didn't even know the rest of them existed.

"I miss them," Kari whispered barely above a whisper staring into her still uneaten sandwich.

TK bit his lip, concerned for a minute she might get more emotional over the 02 team like he had seen her do in the past. He was thinking of ways to cheer her up, but before he had a chance to do anything, she spoke up again. Her voice came out as a child asking an innocent question.

"Are we all going to forget each other like they did?"

TK stopped and took in the question. He had never actually thought about that. It made sense considering what happened with their old team, but it wasn't like they were losing their memories all at once. It didn't make sense to forget a person slowly, but then again when did any of this ever make sense? He put on his best reassuring smile. "Come on, Kari, Izzy's pill isn't going to be like the memory wipe. We'll forget the digimon, but we'll always have each other."

* * *

><p>Izzy slouched in his chair while lazily checking his email and waiting for his computer to finish scanning for viruses. He had taken to doing this at least weekly, paranoid that if there was a virus, it could be something from the Digital World.<p>

As a college freshman, he still lived at home and even took many of his classes online. He just found the whole "college experience" a waste of time and money.

Per usual, there was nothing of interest in his e-mail, a message or two from his friends, a few reminders from his college's computer club about an upcoming meeting, and tons of spam.

A new email appeared on his screen, and he dragged the mouse over to click on it.

**Koushiro Izumi,**

** This is a message from Investigator Benjamin Mori.**

**We think that you along with Yamato Ishida, Joe Kido, Hikari and Taichi Kamiya, Mimi Tachikawa, Takeru Takaishi, and Sora Takenouchi will be of great assistance to us in a new investigation. **

**We request your attendance at the Odaiba Police Station on Thursday and Friday for questioning at 3:00 PM. The police are involved, so force will be used if any of you refuse to come.**

**-Benjamin Mori**

Izzy sat up straighter, now more alert with panic. What investigation? Why would an investigator and the police be contacting them? This couldn't be something to do with the Digital World. No one knew about it; they had done everything they could to keep it a secret.

More scenarios ran through his head, each worse than the last. They could be arrested for some reason or thrown in the loony bin for talking of a world in their computer or the one he feared the most, everyone could find out about the Digital World.

Izzy opened a new message and began typing furiously.

**Everyone,**

** We need to talk ASAP.**

* * *

><p>Thanks so much for reading!<p>

Any new guesses for who didn't take the pill? Any opinions or comments? Any questions or concerns? Feel free to review!


	4. W1 Wednesday

Time for Izzy's emergency meeting...

* * *

><p><span>Wednesday<span>

"Did you get the email?" TK asked as soon as he walked up to Kari's locker. He'd missed lunch and had been itching all day to talk to the other digidestined about the eerie email he'd received.

She nodded with an obvious worried expression on her face. "How could he know anything? We've been so careful."

"That's the thing. I don't think he does." TK let his eyes wander to a group of chatting students down the hall. School was out, so the hallways were almost cleared, but it still wasn't safe for them to talk freely.

Kari raised an eyebrow. "So you think this isn't about them?" By them she meant the Digimon, but like TK, she was aware it wasn't safe to call them by name.

He shrugged bringing his eyes from the other students to Kari. "I don't know what it's about, but if it is about them than it doesn't matter because there's no proof left."

She looked doubtful while contemplating what he just said. "I guess you're right. I really hope he doesn't start telling everyone. I couldn't take it if things turn out like last time."

He grinned confidently, hoping to show Kari how sure he was that the investigator wasn't a threat. "Don't worry, it won't. Come on, we've got to get going to Izzy's meeting."

* * *

><p>Joe, glasses askew and blue hair disheveled, paced around his dorm feverishly. He'd been doing what he does best: panicking.<p>

"I know it's here. It has to be here. I can't have lost it! I just can't!" The college student mumbled to himself. It was a good thing his roommate wasn't around to hear him.

Three nocks came at the door in perfect rhythm. Joe yelled out, rather aggressively since he was being interrupted from his search, that he'd be there in a minute.

Not wanting to wait that long, whoever was on the other side of the door began kicking the bottom of it repeatedly.

"I said just a minute!" Joe stomped over, straightened his glasses, took a deep breath, and opened the door to reveal Tai with his leg reeled back for another kick and Matt leaning on the wall opposite the dorm.

Joe reluctantly opened the door knowing he had to let them in no matter what his state of panic. "Did you really have to kick the door?"

"You were taking forever!" Tai explained before ungraciously plopping down on the corner of Joe's bed. His and his roommate's room was perfectly cleaned and organized. It put Matt and Tai's room to even more shame. Everything was in its place. That is, except for…

"My paper, I was looking for it," Joe revealed while taking a few more glances around the room as if he expected it to suddenly appear. Tai and Matt took a good look at Joe. He was awfully frazzled, and even though neither of them would reduce themselves to such lengths to find some teacher's assignment, they knew Joe of all people must be panicking.

"Are you sure you didn't leave it somewhere outside of your dorm?" Matt suggested trying to be helpful.

Joe dismissed the idea. "Not possible, completed assignments go in the Completed Assignments Folder. I would've never taken it out of the Completed Assignments Folder if it was completed which it was because it was perfect and completed and now it's gone!" He had taken a few steps toward the now tentative blonde.

"Er…right."

"You can't print out another copy?" Tai called with his eyes now firmly attached to the ceiling.

"Well, I could, but that requires having to get it laminated again which cost 25 cents. Not to mention, there was a long line."

Matt blinked. "So basically this is about a quarter?"

"This is more than a quarter!" Joe whaled. "It's the principal!"

"Right, the pride that comes with laminating your homework," Matt remarked sarcastically.

Joe shot him a look before letting out a deep sigh and grabbing his car keys off his desk. The paper would have to wait. He knew his friends well enough to know they showed up for a ride to the meeting Izzy had called. "I'm driving?"

Both gave a brief confirmation before they headed out the door.

In the hallway, there was about three seconds of silence before Tai began to snicker. "You laminate your papers?"

* * *

><p>"Don't you think the cosmos would look better next to the geraniums?"<p>

"Huh?" Sora asked, only partly listening because she didn't want to lose count on the inventory of daisies. It seemed more people were buying those nowadays.

Mimi elaborated, "I just think that the geraniums would complement the cosmos, but you've got them shoved in the corner all sad and alone."

_'All accounted for.'_ Sora turned to face Mimi who sat on a stool behind the check-out counter. Supposedly, Mimi was going to help anyone who needed checked out while Sora manned the floor, but the flower shop was closing soon, and the few lingering customers were beginning to depart. Sora frowned slightly studying the cosmos in question. "The flowers don't have feelings, Mimi."

"You don't know that," she chimed.

"I'll believe it when they start talking to me."

"Maybe they are, and you don't know how to listen."

Sora's attempt to show her annoyance through an eye roll was cancelled out by the amused smile that appeared on her face. "You sound like my mom."

She shrugged. "At least one of us does. Hey, speaking of your mom, when do you think she'll be back?"

"Who knows?" Sora's mom had been off visiting her dad in Kyoto for the past couple of days, the same couple of days Mimi had been staying at the Takenouchi's apartment for her spring break.

Mr. Takenouchi's work still forbid him from coming home to stay, so Sora had decided to take a year off before college to help her mother with the shop and keep her company.

Mimi paused before pressing, "Now could you move the cosmos?"

"Mimi!"

"What?" She asked innocently. After all, she was only being honest.

Sora shook her head slightly. She could never be mad at Mimi, but that girl sure did love to do things her way.

The telling ding from a bell on top of the door told of another customer. Sora was about to announce they were closed for the day before turning around to spot two familiar faces.

"Kari, TK, hi!" she called out motioning for them to meet her and Mimi by the counter.

They both smiled warmly, grateful to see their friends and get some answers.

"So where's everyone else?" Kari asked casually.

"Right here!" The unmistakable sound of Tai's voice filled the shop as he, Matt, and Joe entered. They made their way to the rest of the group.

Matt surveyed the room. "Now we're only missing the guy who called this meeting."

Mimi inquired, "Did the rest of you get that creepy email?"

There were a few nods of confirmation before Joe said, "It's probably why we're here."

"Do you think he knows?" Sora asked suddenly looking worried.

TK shook his head disbelievingly. "How could he?"

"Because we hold our meetings in public places like this."

The reply came from Izzy, striding through the door with an oversized pile of papers occupying both his hands. His eyes sweeped the room expecting someone to be eavesdropping.

Sora involuntarily tilted her head. "You said you wanted the meeting here, and besides, there are no customers left."

Izzy laid down his papers and began shuffling with them, too preoccupied at the moment to make eye contact. "Valid points but I was referring to your apartment. Your parents aren't here while mine are at my apartment and could easily walk in to hear us discussing monsters and the police and whatnot." Izzy took one more expectant look around the room earning an eye roll from Mimi.

"If it's that big of a deal, we'll go upstairs!"

The eight made their way upstairs and into the Takenouchi's kitchen. It was a quaint, cozy room. Mimi immediately hopped up onto the counter next to the fridge. Matt stood closest to the door with one arm draped around Sora's shoulders. Tai, Joe, TK and Kari, sat down around the table that Izzy leaned over while spreading out his various papers for everyone to see.

He took a deep breath and began; "Now I assume that last night at approximately 6:45 PM you all received an email from a man claiming to be Benjamin Mori, an investigator who has called us in for questioning with the assistance of the police?" There were a few nods of confirmation, so he continued; "Now if this man has approached us because of the Digital World, it is essential that we don't give ourselves away. Contact with him could be dangerous."

"So you do think this is about the Digital World?" Kari asked looking disheartened.

"That was my immediate conclusion. At first I was flabbergasted. As TK pointed out, there's no way he could know what the eight of us are involved in, but he must have figured_ something_ out. I emailed him back-"

"You emailed him back?" Mimi cut in.

Joe questioned, "Didn't you just lecture us about not contacting him?"

"I needed more information…" Izzy trailed off with the slightest bit of guilt in his voice.

Matt shook his head solemnly. "Izzy, your thirst for knowledge better not be the end of us."

The redhead ignored the comment. "Anyway, my point was that his reply was very vague. He said he had 'dug up some dirt' on us which I took as it's something from a very long time ago, and that got me thinking-"

"Oh this can't be good," Tai muttered a bit louder than he had intended.

"-that he must have come across something from back when digimon were all over the news. I took the same route as the investigator, searched around, and found these." He motioned to the papers spread out across the table. "These are articles, reports, scripts for news shows, and everything else that mentions monsters running amuck in the past eight years."

The digidestined seated at the table skimmed over the papers. Most headings mentioned monsters, damage, or violence, but a few were unreadable and obviously not in Japanese. Some had action shots of rampaging digimon or panicking people.

Joe sat back wrinkling his nose disbelievingly. "Wait, the sovereigns spent all this time thinking it over and erasing people's minds, but they never even bothered to get rid of the physical evidence of Digimon?"

Izzy shrugged. He had asked himself the same question. "They couldn't enter our world. The sovereigns only knew of what was happening in the Digi-World. They don't archive events, so they probably didn't consider us keeping records."

"That's one of the Poi brothers!" Kari exclaimed spotting a picture of the eldest brother watching his digimon fight.

Izzy placed his finger on the picture she was referring to. "Precisely, at one point or another, us digidestined have all gotten caught on tape or by a photographer. Even though no one here has ever communicated to the media, we can still be linked to the 'monster attacks' because we had to be nearby if our digimon were fighting."

Sora squinted her eyes still not entirely convinced. "By that logic, they would have found tons of digidestined around the world. Why wouldn't he have tracked down the 02 team or the international digidestined?"

Izzy placed the finger that was on the picture to his chin. He had been so caught up in figuring out how they were discovered that he didn't stop to think about why no one else was. "Not sure, maybe he's going off of something that only we were involved in."

"So something back from the first adventure?" Tai suggested.

"Possibly."

Joe reminded, "We didn't get any news coverage back then compared to after 02."

"Yes, but we were also a lot less careful about not being seen. Do I have to remind you all we ascended into the sky via a giant rainbow beam?"

Tai sat up straighter to address the others, "Alright so somehow he found us, and now we have to make it through questioning. I don't think anyone needs reminded that we can't tell them anything. No matter what happens, we all promise to keep the Digital World a secret?"

Izzy nodded adding on, "Everyone has to be exceedingly careful. We can't let this guy know anything."

Matt snorted, "You're one to talk. You're a horrible liar!"

The redhead folded his arms defensively. "I am not! I'm not even the worst liar here."

All eyes turned to Mimi who had an indignant look on her face. "Hey, I can keep a secret!"

"We know, Mimi," Tai assured, "but if someone asks you a direct question about the Digimon, there's no giggling or fidgeting, got it?"

She nodded vigorously. "I know! Don't worry, I can handle it."

Satisfied, Tai addressed the group again, now watching the clock on the wall of the kitchen, "Good so I've got a class that starts… uh, about 20 minutes ago, so we should get going. Izzy, anything else?"

Izzy shook his head. "No, I'll see you all tomorrow at the police station."

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading!<p>

I heard somewhere reviewing is good for the soul... Alright maybe it's not, but why not try?


	5. W1 Thursday

I know nothing about the police force or investigators, so I apologize if anything I say is wrong.

So funny story: I neglected this for a few days then wrote this whole chapter after exams. Maybe wracking my brain to remember random science laws gave me inspiration?... Eh, probably not.

* * *

><p><span>Thursday<span>

Mori leaned on his hand while rhythmically tapping his fingers across the desk in front of him in anticipation. Today, he would finally get the answers he had oh-so-patiently been waiting for, and as soon as he got those answers, it would lead to cracking this case and getting his job back.

These kids had to be the answer; there was no doubt in his mind. After spending all day Tuesday researching at the mercy of the slow-loading monitor in the library, he had deduced that it had to be them.

"Hey, Mr. Mori, heard you need our help with a new case!" a cheery voice called. It came from Police Officer Louis, a peppy guy who was even more excited from recently earning his badge.

Mori resisted the urge to grin at how easy this all was. Even if he had been fired, the police hadn't been informed, so it was easy enough to call them up and explain he needed to use the police station for questioning. "Yeah, Louis, I do. All I need is this room for a little while, and if you wouldn't mind, someone to guard the suspects when they come in here."

For a police officer, the concept of suspects still seemed scandalous and juicy to him. "Ooh! What do you think they did?"

Now Mori really did grin. "Think? I know they were involved in something that's quite… large scale."

A stern looking man with a thick, black mustache marched into the room. "What're you doing in my chair, Mori?" he growled, moving his mustache up and down with every syllable.

Mori calmly turned to face Louis's superior, Mr. Sanders. "I'll need to be using your office as an interrogation room for my latest case."

Mr. Sanders let out an even more disgruntled growl. He didn't care for the investigators much but knew it'd be his job on the line if he didn't comply with them. "Fine, whatever but don't be hogging my office all day."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Mori assured.

* * *

><p>Eight individuals sat in the waiting room twiddling their thumbs and shaking their legs in anticipation. All were silent and a bit paranoid that at any moment someone would scream out how they knew everything and needed to be taken to the Digital World right away. The Digidestined would be turned into government property because they were the only ones who could open the gate, the government would decide the Digimon's true purpose was to take over the Real World, so humans had to take over the Digital World first and build condos everywhere.<p>

Of course, that was a worst case scenario.

Currently all they knew was that they were waiting to be questioned in a police station and hadn't admitted to knowing anything about anything.

A man with a thick mustache stepped out of a nearby door and into the waiting room. He held up and read a small slip of paper in his hands and called out gruffly, "Yamato Ishida."

Matt stood up slowly and silently followed him into the dimly lit office. It looked and felt empty and cramped. Assuming it was for him, he took a seat in the fold-out chair placed near the center of the room and immediately relaxed into a slouch.

The chair faced a wooden desk that was much too big for its surroundings. From the also oversized office chair behind the desk, none other than Benjamin Mori spun around to face his first suspect with an air of confidence. "Now would you like to know why you're here?"

Matt resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Uh, kind of."

Mori merely smirked as he held up the photograph from the article he had found a few days ago in the Unsolvable Pile. "Do you know what this is a picture of?"

"Some monster fight in a movie?" Matt tried without skipping a beat. He was prepared for the worst and disappointed that he was right: this was about the Digimon. Now that his suspicions had been confirmed, Matt was more alert to make sure he didn't slip up and give them any information. He stayed slouched in the chair doing his best to pretend he didn't know or care about the photo.

"Wrong," Mori chided. "This is a shot taken roughly four years ago in downtown Odaiba, and in the background there-" He pointed to the tall blonde standing to the side of the monsters- "is you, Yamato."

"Wrong," Matt deadpanned. "That's not me. You'd think I'd remember something like that."

Mori resisted the urge to chuckle. He hadn't expected anything less than for them to deny it. "Oh, but it is you. You see, I blew up the image, did a little search, and found that the only person who matched was you."

Matt mentally cursed. They'd found him; no use in pretending but also no point in giving up that easy. Still acting like he couldn't care less, he decided it best to find out what this guy was up to. "Right, well I think I would know much better than you whether that's me or not, but if, let's say, that was me, why would I be on a movie set?"

"It's not from a movie!" Mori burst before quickly regaining his composure and calmly explaining, "These are real monsters that have appeared numerous times around Odaiba, Japan and even the world."

"And I didn't hear about this because…?"

"Because you…I'm asking the questions here, alright?" To be honest, Mori still didn't know why he wasn't aware of these monsters until coming upon the article.

Matt raised an eyebrow and studied the investigator. "You don't seem to know what you're talking about."

Mori let out a disdainful laugh that made Matt cringe. "Please, I know more than you."

The digidestined bit back his retort. As far as this guy was concerned, he did know more. Instead Matt only muttered, "You still don't know enough."

Mori let out a low growl of frustration. This one wasn't getting him anywhere. He met Matt's eyes and could tell that he wouldn't be giving up any information that Mori still firmly believed he possessed. "Fine, go."

Matt strolled out of the room as casually as he walked in but this time meeting seven expectant looks. As he sat back down in his seat, he gave an almost invisible nod to communicate to everyone the worst: To some degree, Benjamin Mori knew about the Digimon.

The man, a police officer, came back out to the waiting room swiftly reading and announcing, "Taichi Kamiya."

Tai glanced once more at Matt before making his way to the office with his head held high, prepared for what was about to come.

Upon entering, Mori barked at him to sit. It was time to play the bad cop. The investigator stood, so he could look down on Tai. His full height was always intimidating and the fact that Tai was sitting didn't help that. Despite that, Tai didn't flinch and waited for Mori to start.

"Let's cut to the chase. Tell me what this is." He pointed to Garurumon in the same picture he'd shown Matt.

Tai scratched his head in mock consideration. "You see, sir, a photograph is a moment captured on light-"

"I know what a photograph is!" Mori snapped.

Tai held out his hands defensively. "Then why would you ask me?"

"Ugh! You know what I meant. What is it a photo of?"

"Looks like Odaiba," the bushy-haired brunette answered simply.

Mori sighed. "And what is happening in Odaiba in the photo?"

Tai squinted his eyes as if to better study the image. "Well there are some people with their mouths open and their eyes are as round as soccer balls, so they're probably screaming."

The investigator tried to keep his voice steady and his temper from getting the better of him. "And why would they be screaming?"

"Because it's Halloween."

Mori paused, dumbstruck. "What?"

"Yeah," he continued taking the picture from him and turning it around, so Mori could see it. "See those two guys in the front? They're in costumes because they're going Trick-or-Treating, and those people screaming didn't give them candy, so they had to be tricked because that's the rule. Must have been a pretty good trick because they look pretty scared."

Mori sat a few more moments staring at the picture in disbelief as his blood began to boil. He was fed up with this kid. He leaned over his desk, mere inches from Tai's triumphant grin. Through barred teeth he hissed, "Enough, tell me what you're not telling me."

If anything, Tai's grin grew wider. "Now if I told you what I'm not telling you than I wouldn't be not telling you because I told you."

Mori exploded, "Out!"

"If you say so," Tai chirped and sprang out of his seat and back into the waiting room.

Upon entering, the room instantly changed his mood, reminding him of how tense everyone was. He caught Izzy's eye and shrugged nonchalantly as if to say it was nothing.

Sticking his head back into the waiting room, the officer said, "Hikari Kamiya."

Kari took a deep breath and after getting a reassuring look from both TK and her brother, she walked slowly to where Mori awaited.

The investigator looked to be still fuming; he spoke with hostility already in his voice. "I hope you're not like you brother."

Kari, having no idea how to respond to that, remained silent and Mori gestured for her to sit down before he took a seat himself.

He folded his hands over the desk and looked to Kari expectantly. "Do you have any idea why you're here?"

She played dumb hoping it would get her out of there sooner. "No, should I?"

He answered matter-of-factly, "Yes, you should. In my research, I actually found several photographs of you on the scene of these monster attacks." He began shuffling through his papers.

She tilted her head trying to portray confusion. "What monster attacks?"

He looked to her exasperatedly. "You_ know_ what I'm talking about."

"I'm sorry, sir, but I really don't."

He plopped a few photographs in front of her on the edge of his desk. "I suppose these aren't you?"

She took a few moments to study them. They definitely were of her; Angewomon was in almost every photo with her and several had other Digidestined standing by her. Most were from when she was twelve and was battling with the 02 team, but there was one of her at merely eight-years-old standing next to TK, green hat and all, both clutching their digivices tightly.

'_How did he get a picture of that?' _In fact, how did he get any of these? She knew there was always some form of media around trying to catch a story, but they couldn't possibly have been caught this many times.

"These aren't you?" Mori repeated still looking quite downbeat. He hadn't even notice her reaction to the photographs. If he had, maybe he wouldn't be so quick to dismiss her.

She looked away from the photographs to see Mori's gaze concentrated on the desk. "No, of course not."

Mori rubbed his temples muttering exasperatedly, "Just go then."

Kari left quickly, possibly feeling a little pity for the man who looked so hopeless. She met back up with her friends in the waiting room.

Not bothering to come out of the office, the policeman yelled, "Koushiro Izumi!"

Izzy stood up, straightened out his shirt, and marched into the office. This was what he'd been waiting for. Unlike the others, Izzy didn't want to just get through this; if Mori was a threat, he needed this questioning just as much as the investigator.

"Ben, is it?" Izzy questioned not seeing the point in a proper greeting.

Mori raised an eyebrow. He wasn't expecting someone to be so straight forward or automatically assume he could call him by his first name. He nodded slightly in response.

"Prodigious," Izzy muttered before continuing louder, "So the others have told me you've called us all her on account of monster attacks? Why exactly would we specifically be involved in something of that nature?"

"Um…" Mori was still in shock. Why was he the one being asked the questions? It didn't really matter; maybe if he answered this one's questions, he'd answer his.

Mori moved his papers around to reach the bottom of his pile where he firmly held onto a slip of paper without pulling it out yet. "You see, in the reports of monster attacks I found, there was no consistency; they were always with different people in a different place at a different time. There was no pattern, and I had no lead.

"That is, until I found this." He pulled out the paper. It was a fuzzy photograph of eight forms surrounded by all of the colors of the rainbow.

Izzy mentally celebrated for his correct assumptions,_ 'I knew it was the rainbow beam!' _But on the outside he asked, "Why does that prove anything?"

"Because nothing else in the articles or photos hit me in the face like this one. These were humans being lifted into the air by something obviously supernatural right after standing in the middle of a huge monster battle. After some work, I found that these figures are none other than you and your pals in there from eight years ago."

Izzy took a minute to ponder. This guy really did do his research. They seemed to be caught, but besides old newspaper articles, he didn't have any proof. "So what's it matter if that is us? What are you going to do about it? Why do you even care?"

Mori chuckled in a way that made Izzy uncomfortable. "I have my reasons. Are you admitting to that being the eight of you?"

Izzy giggled nervously. Direct questions really did make him nervous. He scratched the back of his neck and rolled his eyes down to his shoes. "No, of course not, why would we be hanging around with monsters?"

Mori frowned deeply. He thought he might actually get an answer with this one. "Fine, don't say anything; there's still another day. Tell your pals they can go; we'll finish this tomorrow."

Izzy nodded, still not meeting the man's eyes, and scurried out of the room. Mr. Sanders closed the door behind him while shaking his head disappointedly. "Who knew some kids could rile you up so much."

Mori narrowed his eyes. "Those kids are my only shot, and they haven't given me anything to work with!"

"Maybe you need a new approach," The officer suggested.

"I've tried every approach in the book! I was harsh and uncaring and informative and-"

He interrupted, "Maybe they really don't know anything."

Mori shook his head vigorously in protest. "No, trust me. They know something, and I'm going to figure it out."

* * *

><p>Well that was fun to write. I was going to say I liked a specific Chosen's interrogation, but I liked all of them, and this isn't the end of the questioning of course.<p>

Much thanks for reading!


	6. W1 Friday

I don't own Nintendo.

Writing this was weird. I wrote it in parts and then realized I had written everything I planned to.

* * *

><p><span>Friday<span>

Matt grumbled under his breath to Izzy who sat beside him, "And why are we here exactly?"

"Because the police would force us to come back if we didn't," Izzy replied while feverishly rubbing his hands together. He was becoming pretty restless without his laptop.

"Don't they get this is pointless?" Tai asked, leaning across the aisle in between his row of chairs and theirs.

"Yeah, we're not going to give them what they're looking for," Matt added.

"You know, you three are very bad at whispering," Mr. Sanders cut in after appearing out of the office doors and behind Matt and Izzy. He was answered with a sheepish grin from Izzy while Tai and Matt refused to make eye contact.

The policeman rolled his eyes before announcing to all eight of the people sitting around the room, "Mr. Mori will be finishing his individual questioning."

Joe didn't try to hide his moan of disapproval. "How long is this going to take? I have to be back on campus in a few hours for a test!"

Mr. Sanders shrugged helplessly looking just as annoyed with the situation as Joe. "It'll take as long as you make it take. Would Sora Takenouchi please come in here?"

Sora looked surprised and fearful for a moment after hearing her name called but masked it quickly. She did her best to walk confidently into the office.

As she entered, she saw Mori leaning back in his chair with a much more calm and collected air to him than by the end of yesterday's failed attempts to get information.

"Hello, Sora," He greeted with a brief nod for her to sit down. She did so but did not return the hello. It wasn't best to get too friendly.

He didn't seem to mind as he kept talking, "So have your friends told you anything? Do you know about the monster attacks?"

She nodded slightly and then paused, preparing herself to lie to the law. "Yes, sir, and I think the whole thing sounds absolutely ridiculous, like some kids' show."

Mori folded his hands slowly taking in what she'd just said. "Yes, it certainly is unbelievable but not impossible. In fact, there's not a doubt in my mind that somehow all of you are involved with these monsters. Now, I know what you're going to say so don't bother; you've all said the same thing. Deny it all you want, but I have proof that won't easily be disputed." He took out a few articles along with a few pictures, all of which included Sora.

"I know these pictures are of you, so there's no point refusing that. I want you to tell me why you're just standing there when everyone else is running and hiding."

Sora stared at the pictures a moment. It was a little intimidating he had these considering she didn't even know they were being taken. Despite that, she kept trying to portray herself as clueless and confident. "I don't remember any of these, but maybe the camera caught me at a bad time? I probably hadn't started running yet or was too shocked to run."

Mori pretended to think over what she said. He knew it was just another excuse. "Hmmm… Interesting idea but it's happened too many times for comfort." He handed Sora an article with a picture of a gotsumon in the center of Kyoto. She took it and began looking it over. "Who wrote this?"

_'Uh-oh! No, don't worry, stay calm, he can't prove anything.'_ She gulped out, "It's by Haruhiko Takenouchi, my father."

"Yes, he wrote that several years ago. I actually contacted him, but he claimed to have no recollection of writing it which is… strange."

Lucky for Sora, Mori was looking off into the distance and didn't notice the guilty expression that wiped over her face.

"He's always working on new projects. You can't expect him to remember every one off the top of his head," she defended.

"I suppose…" Mori admitted but didn't actually sound convinced at all. "How much do you know about your father's work?"

"Not a lot, I certainly don't know about that article." _'Okay, that sounded suspicious.'_

Mori leaned forward slightly. "I didn't say you did, but you seem awfully worried about convincing me of that. Why?"

"Because…because you think I know something, and I'm trying to prove I don't."

"I don't think you know something; I _know _you know something."

"Well I don't so have fun searching for something that isn't there," Sora replied bitterly. This guy really got on her nerves.

He raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised by the reply. "Fine... If you don't know anything, you can go."

"Uh, okay," she said surprised at how easy that had been. She headed out the door.

Mori massaged his temples. It seemed today would be a lot like yesterday. He called over to Mr. Sanders, "Send in Joe Kido."

A couple minutes later, Joe was speed walking in the room looking nothing less than stressed.

"Joe, nice to-"

"Yeah, can we hurry this up?" Joe asked with both eyes planted firmly on his watch.

"Why such the hurry?" Mori inquired suspiciously.

"I happen to have a very important test in one hour, thirty-seven minutes and… 43 seconds. I need to get going if I'm going to get back to campus and have time to look over my notes, so I'll just cut to the chase: I don't know anything, you can't prove anything, and I have to go." With that, Joe turned around and walked towards the door.

"Hold it!" Mori exclaimed while standing up from his seat, so he could look down at Joe. Admittedly, the height difference wasn't as large as with the others. "You can leave as soon as you tell me what you're not saying."

To what would be the other digidestined's horror, Joe stopped. He even considered the offer for a moment. After all, this was a pretty big test, but he knew it wasn't worth giving up the digimon.

He decided on overdramatically shouting, "BUT I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!"

"Yes, you do!" the investigator insisted.

"No, I really don't."

The investigator determined this kid was beyond reasoning. He wasn't going to get anything out of him if he was going to act like this.

"…just go." Joe left the room looking a bit less stressed but still very high strung.

Mori sat back down bringing his fists down with him hard onto the table. "Next one!"

"Which one?" Mr. Sanders asked.

"It doesn't matter! They're all the same!"

Mr. Sanders brought in Mimi who looked like she was trying her hardest not to laugh. She graciously sat down but refused to make eye contact.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing," she replied quickly.

"Why are you laughing?"

Mimi tried to stifle her laughter and take a few deep breaths. "I'm sorry. I'm not good under pressure."

"There would only be pressure if you're hiding something," Mori reasoned.

"No, there's pressure because I've been sitting in a police station while you accuse us of, uh, what are you accusing us of again?"

"…being involved with these monsters."

"Right and so what if we are? You can't do anything about it." She crossed her arms defiantly now meeting Mori's eyes.

"So are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Involved with monsters!"

"Oh…" Mimi looked back to the ground and the slightest hint of a smile played on her face. "Of course not! I mean, why would we be?"

"All of these photos," Mori explained.

"Oh that doesn't prove anything!" Mimi unwillingly let a giggle escape. "Being there makes us witnesses, not suspects!"

"I suppose, but you admit to being there?"

"Huh?"

"You admit that some of these pictures are of you?'

She continued to stare down at the floor. She was fairly certain he already knew that part, so it wouldn't hurt to admit she was there. "Well yes but I just happened to be around like everyone else in that picture."

"That's all I needed to hear," Mori said. He was pleased with himself. At least he got something out of the kids: he knew they were the ones in the pictures.

He told Mimi she was free to go and then Mr. Sanders sent in the last child.

TK calmly came into the room and quietly took a seat waiting for Mori to begin. The best way to get through the interrogation was to stay calm and admit nothing.

"Let's get down to the facts," Mori suggested.

"Alright," TK obliged.

Mori took from his papers the picture from when they were lifted into the air by a rainbow. "This picture."

"Yes."

"You didn't live in Odaiba."

"Yes."

"But you were there."

"…Yes."

"Why?"

"My dad lived there."

"Is that an excuse?"

"Y-No."

"Really because I happen to know you weren't there until that day when you bought a ferry ticket and came over to Odaiba, the same day all of the monster attacks were happening. Why would you be going to the monsters when everyone else was running away?"

TK blinked. It was just a tad creepy he knew that. "Uh, I, uh…"

Mori smirked. "Go on."

"You see…" TK wracked his brain for an answer before deciding that the only thing he could do was tell the truth. "I was worried about my dad and my brother, so I went over there to help."

"And what made you think an eight-year-old could stop giant monsters?"

TK shrugged, now smiling a bit. "I don't know. It made sense back then."

"So you admit you know about the monsters?"

"…I admit to being one of the hundreds of people who were there, but I don't know any more than them."

"What about this picture?" He held up the one of him and Kari clutching their digivices. "What are you holding?"

TK pretended to study the picture for a moment before answering, "Some kind of handheld videogame."

"They're not related to the monsters?"

"I don't think so unless Nintendo has a hidden agenda," TK joked lightheartedly before catching a glance of the unamused, serious face of the investigator.

"Come with me," He ordered. The two along with Mr. Sanders left the room and went out into the waiting room where everyone sat.

TK took back his seat next to Kari, and everyone turned to face Mori expectantly.

His voice was loud and angered as he looked around the room. Most of these kids had him almost flip his lid, and his frustration was fresh in his mind. "Now that I have all of you together let me just say that I know exactly what you're all up to."

"Yeah, right," Matt whispered earning him a warning glare from Izzy.

"You think I'm dumb, that you can outsmart me! I've been at this business for years and there is nothing I can't handle including a bunch of kids who think they know everything!"

"That's quite enough!" came a voice from the doorway to the main lobby. They all turned to see none other than Mrs. Izumi standing there with a stern look on her face.

"And who are you?" asked Mori agitatedly.

She walked into the room looking the man who was more than a foot taller than her in the eye. "I am his"- she indicated Izzy with a slight nod of her head- "mother and happen to know the rest of these kids' parents, and they won't be happy to know you called all of them here without their consent."

Mori leaned down towards the woman, but she didn't flinch. "Mrs. Izumi, is it? The majority of these kids, including your son, are of age and don't need parental consent to be called in for an investigation."

She pointed a finger in the direction of TK and Kari. "Those two are only sixteen, and I've talked to their parents along with everyone else's. They're not very pleased with you harassing their children."

"What!" TK exclaimed verbally communicating what everyone was thinking. Their parents weren't the most understanding when it came to not telling them things and keeping secrets. Since their parents couldn't know about the Digital World, both happened a lot.

"Now they will be leaving here with me."

No one moved.

"Now!" she commanded. The digidestined all stood up. Mrs. Izumi was definitely scarier than the law.

"Fine, leave, but they'll be back!" Mori yelled after the group desperately. He watched the last of them exit the waiting room.

"YEUAAUGHH!" the investigator exclaimed finding it the best way to communicate his frustration.

Mr. Sanders only rolled his eyes. "Such a moody guy…"

Mori took a deep breath forming a cynical smile on his face. "This is fine. I just wanted to give them some food for thought. This won't be the last time we meet."

* * *

><p>"…I know…Okay, Dad…Okay…Yes!…Fine but-…Bye, Dad."<p>

"Having fun?" Tai asked upon entering their shared dorm and hearing the end of the phone call.

"Boat loads." Matt used his foot to spin the computer chair he was sitting in to face the brunette while tossing his cell phone onto his bed. "How about you?"

"I'm on hold," Tai explained indicating his cell phone that was being loosely handled in his hand. "Mom stopped yelling at Kari to yell at me and now she's yelling at Kari again. She told me not to hang up because she'll be back to yelling at me in a minute."

The blonde nodded sneaking another glance at his phone. "I don't know why they think they can boss us around. We're adults; we don't depend on them."

Tai shrugged, bringing the phone to his ear for a second to check if he was still on hold before placing it on the edge of the desk. "They did it for eighteen years, and they'll keep at it as long as they can."

"Whatever," Matt grumbled still not thinking pestering parents were justified.

There was a pause before Tai decided that now was a better time than ever to bring up, "Let's have all the guys spend the night here tomorrow."

"What? Why?" Matt asked surprised.

"We never hang out anymore, and with today and that pill, it seems like we should." It's true. As kids, the digidestined hung out all the time whether the Digital World demanded it or not, but in recent years, they'd been caught up with their own activities so much that the team had drifted some.

Matt meditated on it a second. "There's barely enough room in here for us."

Tai surveyed the dorm. The majority of space was taken by the beds and the desk with the little carpet that was visible and not covered in miscellaneous junk being pathways to each.

"We'll manage. Come on, Matt. They don't care!"

Matt asked oddly suspiciously, "And to hang out is the only reason?" He had noticed his friend's behavior. He'd been acting strange around the whole team.

"Pretty much."Tai shrugged acting as though it had been a split second decision. The truth of the matter was he still had no idea who didn't take the pill and figured the more time he spent with everyone, the better chance for him to hear someone slip up and admit they didn't take it.

Matt's phone began to ring on the bed, and he groaned. "And there's the other parent."

Tai chuckled. "Have fun getting another talking to."

"Please, how much you want to bet you're not on hold anymore."

Tai's eyes widened then he grabbed his phone. Surely enough, no one was on the line, and he had a new voice mail. That's what he gets for leaving his phone on silent.

* * *

><p>Questionings over, the parents are mad, Tai's going to try and figure out who took the pill... pretty much sums everything up.<p>

Much thanks for reading! I'm still curious if anyone has changed their minds on who took the pill.


	7. W1 Saturday

Not an insanely long chapter but a chapter none the less.

Bad for me: My plans for today were cancelled last minute. Good for you: My plans for today were cancelled, so I was stuck at home with nothing to do but write.

By the way, I have no idea what video game the guys are playing. In my head I imagined something like Super Smash Brothers (which I don't own).

And for anyone who doesn't play video games because I was a little afraid you wouldn't get this: when they're talking about teams, and it refers to a computer they mean a character who's participating in the fight/match/battle but isn't played by a human; they're controlled by the computer.

* * *

><p><span>Saturday<span>

'_It has to be Joe. His questioning was so quick, and he wanted to leave so bad that he must've told the investigator something. He was a traitor at the questioning and a traitor by not taking the pill!... But I guess by that logic, it could be Matt too. All he wanted to do yesterday was leave. Or it could be anyone because no one wanted to be there. Hell, it could even be me! Oh no, what if it's me? How could I do that! I'm their leader; I can't betray them like that!... Oh wait, I know I didn't do it. Hehe…'_

"Tai, what the hell are you staring at?"

"Huh?"

"I've been in here for about ten minutes now, and you've been staring at the ceiling the whole time. Is peeling plaster really that interesting?"

Tai grunted in response before finally rolling over onto his stomach. He noticed his room for the first time and Matt sitting at the computer.

"You cleaned… kind of," Tai commented surveying the floor. The previous paths to the beds and desk had widened, and the majority of the junk was shoved under said beds.

Matt shrugged while thumbing the computer mouse. "Yeah because you think we'll all be able to enjoy ourselves crammed in here."

"It's not about the place; it's about the people," Tai lectured.

Matt narrowed his eyes grumbling, "It's kind of about the place."

Just then, a few loud thuds coming from the outside of the door caught their attention. Matt got up to answer it to be met by a person hidden behind the several large computer-related objects he was holding.

Tai blinked not fully believing what he was seeing before simply asking, "Why?"

"I had to bring my computer and the necessary accessories." Izzy carefully placed the pile on the edge of the desk and then proceeded to fiddle with it.

"Izzy, we already have a computer."

"You call that a computer? Please, how fast's the processor? 1.0 GHz?"

Matt muttered while shaking his head,"You just couldn't make it one night without it…"

On the other side of the still open door, appeared TK carrying one bag contrasting Izzy's large mass of stuff.

"Hey," he greeted before walking in and throwing his bag on the floor.

"I just cleaned that," remarked Matt.

"Cleaned?" TK asked disbelievingly noticing the piles of junk and conspicuous smell.

"I organized to some degree… Don't put your junk on the floor."

"Izzy did," TK defended earning an offended look from said redhead.

"This is not junk! This is highly delicate equipment that should be treated with the utmost care. By the way, Tai, weren't you looking for your Home Ec. book? It was on the floor over here."

"Oh awesome!" Tai exclaimed taking the textbook from Izzy and lobbing it into the corner by his backpack. "Now I might actually pass that class."

Izzy tilted his head slightly. "How are you failing? It's a class about food."

"That's why I'm failing. According to my teacher, my 'pallet is not colorful enough to appreciate the fine cuisine that is offered', and it's not appropriate to describe anything as 'just ew' in a review. Man, I wish I hadn't taken that class!"

"At least you get to choose your classes," TK pointed out, "I still have to sit through the great wonder that is Health."

"Aren't you supposed to take Health in freshman year?" Izzy asked.

"I did, but I missed one too many videos to pass the final."

"Well why were you always missing class?" Tai questioned obliviously. TK simply raised his eyebrows and gave Tai a look that suggested he figure it out himself. After realizing it had been because of the Digital World he let out a simple, "Oh…"

"I'm here, I'm here, I'm here!" cried Joe as he came bursting into the dorm. He leaned over, bag loosely hanging on one shoulder and hands on his knees, panting.

"This isn't school, Joe. You can be late," Matt said only half-joking.

"I know, I know." He stood up straighter and pushed his slipping glasses farther back on his nose. "Sorry I was helping my roommate with his bags; he's heading back home for a few days."

"Wait so there's no one in your dorm…?" Matt asked incredulously looking a bit unnerved.

"Hmm? No, there isn't," Joe said matter-of-factly.

"But-but why are we trying to cram everyone in here when your dorm is bigger?"

"…Good question," Joe mused bringing a hand to his chin.

Tai chuckled, "Just let it go, Matt. You already cleaned the place."

* * *

><p>"HA! That's twelve to nada, zip, zero, zilch, a big slice of nothing, a-"<p>

"We get it, Tai. Your team won again."

A little disheartened by being stopped mid-victory boast, Tai slumped back down onto his bed. Around the room, everyone else also sat centered around Izzy's computer that they were playing a video game on.

Matt slouched in the computer chair with his feet propped up on the desk. TK sat, legs crossed, on the edge of Matt's bed. Joe lay on the floor on his back having fallen backwards in exasperation after his team's latest defeat. Izzy sat on the floor leaning on the end of Tai's bed.

"Let's switch teams," the redhead suggested, "I'll take TK, and you can have Joe."

"We can't change teams. They're divided fairly based on skill level," Tai reminded. In all honesty, he just didn't want Joe on his team. He didn't know why, but the longer he was around Joe, the more convinced he was it was him who left the pill in the potted plant. It was driving Tai crazy just looking at the traitor let alone if he had to tag team with him.

"We'll keep it fair! I'll take Matt!"

Realizing compared to Tai and TK he was the Joe of their team, Matt defended, "Hey I'm better than Joe! I just don't spend all my time on videogames like some people."

A resonating "Hey!" came from Izzy, Tai, and TK.

"Fine," Izzy continued, "then I'll take Matt and the computer, and you can keep TK."

"No, Joe's staying on your team!"

"Come on, Tai, what's your problem?"

"He's my problem!" he spat glaring at Joe.

"What'd I do?" Joe questioned in disbelief.

"Why were you in such a hurry to leave, huh?" Tai was a bit surprised with himself for being so straight forward about his suspicions, but there was no stopping now.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're investigation was awful quick yesterday! What'd you tell him?"

"Nothing," Joe assured.

"Liar," Tai grumbled causing Joe's jaw to hang open in shock.

The elder snarled, "What gives you the right to call me a_ liar_? What did I ever do?"

"You didn't take the pill!"

Everyone stared at Tai in shock. How dare he accuse anyone of betraying them like that!

There was a silence that was too tense to be awkward. They all stopped for a moment either being unable to comprehend what just happened or not wanting to.

Eventually TK broke the silence. Wide-eyed he asked, "Do you really think one of us would do that?"

Tai stayed still a few more seconds. If he told them he found a pill would they believe him? Would they all turn against each other? He couldn't tell them that someone had to be a traitor until he knew who it was. "Well… No but maybe I don't know this team as well as I thought."

Izzy reasoned, "Tai, we're the same team we were eight years ago. If anything, we're closer. What makes you so sure someone wouldn't take the pill?"

On the other hand, until he told them why he was so suspicious no one would side with him. "Because I found a pill someone hid in my mom's plant."

Another pause then TK suggested, "Maybe it was an extra."

"There were no extras," Tai reminded looking to Izzy for a confirmation. He nodded solemnly.

Eyes found their way to the previously accused Joe who now had a pleading look on his face. "I took the pill, I swear! Don't you remember I was one of the ones who actually _wanted _to take it?"

Tai scratched the side of his head. He had forgotten that. Joe did openly admit to wanting to leave the Digital World behind, so unless that was some ploy so that no one would suspect him, it couldn't be him. "I guess you're right…" Tai trailed off a little embarrassed now for his hasty accusation.

Another tense silence came in, this time bordering on awkward, until Matt dared to say, "I think it was Mimi."

"I'm certain it wasn't," Izzy said harshly.

"Think about it," Matt pushed, "She said she didn't want to take it. Plus how much do you want to bet her questioning session was this close from her blurting out everything?"

The redhead scoffed. "So she's not the best liar. That doesn't mean she would do that to everyone, and since she is so bad at lying, how could she look us all in the eye and act like she took the pill?"

Matt grunted in response having no real counter argument. "Fine then, Braniac, who do you think it was?"

"Me? Uh…" His eyes met everyone around the room before finally settling on his game controller. "Sora."

"You're just saying that to make me mad!"

"I am not!" he protested, "Have you seen her and Biyomon? While the rest of us aren't as dependent on our digimon anymore, they're as close as ever! She wouldn't give that up."

"Oh I'm sure that's why. You just said my girlfriend because I said yours!"

"She is not my girlfriend!" Izzy shouted automatically earning him an eye roll from Matt.

"Please, you'd already be together if she didn't live so far."

Izzy's face was beginning to match the color of his hair. "Well we are _not _together, and you have no right to accuse her of not taking the pill!"

Tai leaned over from the edge of the bed to place his hand on Izzy's shoulder. "Just relax, Izzy, okay? I'm sure we all have guesses. Joe, who do you think?"

"Oh! Well…" He glanced at the youngest blonde with a guilty expression before revealing, "I think it was TK or Kari."

All eyes went to TK who stared disbelievingly at Joe. "You think I would do that, Joe?"

The elder looked guilty as he shrugged helplessly. "I'm just being honest. You two were the youngest and most connected to the Digital World and you spent the most time in it and one of you probably didn't want to turn out like the 02 team so…"

TK defiantly crossed his arms and glared back at the older boy. "It wasn't me, and it wasn't Kari either!"

"Yeah but how can you be so sure?" Matt mused.

Tai narrowed his eyes. "What are you saying about my sister, Ishida?"

He shrugged unfazed by Tai's threatening gaze. "Nothing just that she was against this whole pill business."

"Everyone was!"

"Which is why," Izzy cut in talking louder than usual to be heard over the bickering friends, "it could be anyone, and we should just stop arguing."

Joe nodded. "Izzy's right. I'm sure whoever it is will step forward when they're ready."

"Yeah right," Tai grumbled, "or they'll keep playing along until we can't be mad because we don't even remember them."

* * *

><p>Well there seems to be a little tension...<p>

As usual, a huge thanks for reading!


	8. W1 Sunday

I'm really frustrated with myself right now. Looking back at my outline, I found out that I only had one thing planned to happen today (It'll be pretty obvious what I'm talking about after reading it), so I moved some stuff around and added to the day. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

><p><span>Sunday<span>

Matt let out a moan as rays of light came through the window and smacked him right in the face. He swiftly pulled the sleeping bag further up over his face and inched down further into it. His mind couldn't exactly register why at the moment, but he'd been up late last night and his head was pleading with him to be shut down for a few more hours.

He could hear clicking and the occasional voice, both muffled by the sleeping bag being pressed into his ears. Figuring those noises meant someone was awake, he knew he should probably greet the day.

He pried the sleeping bag from his head and looked around to see himself lying on his stomach on the floor. For the first time, he noticed how sore his back was. Everything came rushing back to him, but how TK had convinced him to give up his bed he'll never know.

He rolled over onto his back only to cause the light to go directly into his face again. He sat up quickly to escape it while rubbing his poor, sleepy eyes.

"Morning!" TK chirped.

Matt wanted to grown at how cheery he sounded. "How are you up already?"

"Some of us were busy working while you caught up on your beauty sleep," Izzy teased.

"Working on what?" Matt sat up and crawled over, taking the sleeping bag with him, to where Izzy and TK had the computer sitting on the floor. Izzy was in front of it, thumbing the mouse while TK sat off to the side. "Oh come on, Iz! The Digital World?"

"I check on it every Saturday," Izzy defended, "Since the Digimon can't contact our world for fear of being discovered, I have to contact it."

Matt watched Izzy type in some computer code to a box that had just popped up. "But you don't have to. There's never any problem that our digimon can't handle on their own. Besides, pretty soon you won't even be around to check on them."

"…Right."

A loud yawn came from the corner of the room, and they turned to see Joe sitting up and stretching.

"Good morning!" TK called causing Joe to snap his head in their direction. He'd completely forgotten he wasn't at home.

"Oh hey, guys… I guess this explains why I kept dreaming about a rabid lawnmower coming to get me."

Matt tilted his head. "What are you talking about?"

Joe simply pointed to Tai's bed where from under the covers came a loud snore every few seconds or so. To be honest, Matt was so used to it, he didn't even notice.

"Maybe we should wake him up," Joe suggested, "It's already… ten o'clock! Oh no, I have to go!" He began shuffling his bag around trying to gather up everything in it.

"Do you have a class or something?" Matt asked while fiddling with the zipper on the sleeping bag that encased him.

"No, I told my parents I'd be over there about now to visit."

"Your parents actually want to see you? Mine are still mad about the questioning."

"They're not _that_ mad," TK defended, "They're… annoyed."

"It's a pretty angry annoyance," Matt grumbled.

Joe shoved the last of his stuff in his bag. "I'm going. TK, did you need a ride into town?"

He admitted, "Probably, the subway's always cramped on weekends."

"Hey, can I get a ride too?" Matt cut in, "I'm supposed to meet up with Sora today."

"Fine but both of you better be ready in a few minutes," The elder warned taking another glance at the time.

"What about me?" Izzy asked finally tearing away from his computer.

"What do you mean? You've got Tai!" Matt exclaimed while gesturing to the sleeping figure.

Izzy raised an eyebrow. "He's not conscious."

The younger blonde squinted his eyes to get a better look at the computer screen. "Aren't you almost done with your check anyway? It can't take that long."

"Normally no, but according to Tentomon there's been some strange activity. Some digimon have been causing problems in the Digital World with seemingly no motive, and I'm trying to pinpoint the cause."

Matt stretched his arms forward preparing to have to get up. "Well I don't think Tai's doing anything today. He'll sit here and pretend to help you when he gets up."

* * *

><p>"Joe just couldn't drive a few more blocks," Matt grumbled causing TK to frown slightly.<p>

"We don't have to walk that far…" he trailed off already knowing the response he'd get in return.

"But we'd have to walk less if he didn't 'need' to be at his parents 'right now.'" He shoved his hands farther down into his jacket pockets and picked up his pace causing the younger to follow suit.

TK shrugged not taking the complaints the least bit seriously. His brother was just grumpy because he'd been woken up, by his standards, early.

TK let his feet guide him down the sidewalk automatically as he exchanged a word or two here and there with Matt. He'd walked this way so many times that he only ever looked forward to catch sight of the road before crossing.

They reached one of their destinations, TK's apartment building, and with a quick goodbye, the younger treaded through the entrance and was forced to swerve around a boy coming from the other direction. Where ever he was going, he sure was in a hurry.

Matt hadn't seen him coming, and the two ended up knocking shoulders. They exchanged quick apologies before the boy went dashing down the sidewalk. He also tried to continue before TK grabbed his sleeve prompting him to stop.

Matt turned to see his brother with wide eyes and a distant look. "What?"

"You don't know who that was, do you?" TK's voice was almost accusatory.

The elder took turned to watch the back of the figure that was now steadily traveling down the sidewalk. He stood tall but still not reaching the height of either of the brothers. His hair was comparable to dirt-covered straw. The boy turned causing Matt to catch a glimpse of emerald eyes.

Matt's eyes grew wide in shock. "Is that… Cody?" He choked out the last word half-expecting it to be wrong.

TK merely nodded, so Matt continued, "…He's taller."

"Yep," the younger confirmed with an obvious bit of sorrow.

"Hair's more than just a bowl now."

TK's lighthearted chuckle was laced with a hint of bitterness. "I'd be proud if I knew him."

Matt took notice and turned to face his younger brother with a concerned look. "You know we're all sorry about the 02 team."

"Yeah, I know," TK muttered as if he was a child being lectured not to color on the walls yet again.

"There was no choice…."

"Actually there was," he corrected with even more bitterness manifesting behind his words, "My team could've helped."

Matt narrowed his eyes and suspiciously asked, "Your team? What about the eight of us? We're not your team?"

TK hesitated. "You are; it's just… they are too."

"Were," The elder corrected.

He waved his hand like it was no big deal. "Right… were."

* * *

><p>"Sigh."<p>

Izzy stopped typing and looked curiously to Tai who lay on his back staring up at the ceiling. "…Did you just say 'sigh'? You didn't actually sigh; you just said it?"

"Yes because you get mad at me if I sigh and complain I'm breathing too hard on your keyboard!"

Izzy hit a few more keys causing the computer to shut down. "Well it doesn't matter now because I think I've come to a conclusion."

Tai rolled over and looked up to him hopefully. He'd been trapped and forced into sitting there for the last few hours and was bored out of his mind. Something good must have came out of it!

"Tomorrow we'll have to go onto the Digital World to investigate further what these Digimon are up to."

The brunette's face fell instantly. "So you didn't find anything, and you don't have a conclusion."

Izzy waved his hand in the air, swatting away Tai's words like a fly. "It's just going to take a little time. I'm sure it's nothing, but we need to pinpoint the problem just in case."

He stood up and began gathering his various computer supplies. Tai followed suit and pushed himself to his feet. He scratched the side of his head thoughtfully.

"Weren't we already doing something tomorrow?"

Izzy gave him an exasperated look as he leaned down to pick up the last of his stuff. "My weekly status reports?" Tai's blank expression didn't change. "…The pill?"

"Oh, right, right!" he exclaimed before sorely adding, "That pill. You think the report will help figure out who didn't take it?"

The redhead didn't meet his eyes as he slowly wrapped his computer chord. "The purpose is to track the effect the pill has on everyone, if someone didn't take it, it should show."

Tai nodded feeling a little less stressed. He wouldn't have to figure out who it was because it'd be obvious. He could figure it out in time.

"Hey," Tai called having just realized something, "how are you going to keep asking us questions for your status reports when you don't remember the answers?"

"Huh?" Izzy called shuffling his items around in his hands seemingly having missed what Tai said.

"If you lose your memory as we lose our memory, how are you going to ask us recall questions?"

"Oh that…." The redhead giggled nervously. "Uh, I've archived all of the planned questions and answers, so I don't need to remember them."

Tai had stopped listening as soon as Izzy laughed. His eyes had grown large and round. "Izzy, what did you do?"

"What do you mean?"

The brunette jabbed his finger through the air to point at him. "That's your lying laugh for when you're lying!"

Izzy bit his tongue to keep from giggling again and gave Tai an incredulous look. "But there's nothing to lie about."

A dark shadow fell over Tai's face as he looked Izzy up and down. "No way…"

The redhead stared back at him doing his best to stay calm.

"It was you, wasn't it?" his voice was suddenly a whisper that Izzy had to strain to hear.

He tried his best to avoid them but finally met Tai's eyes. They were filled with confusion, resentment, and a hopeful doubt that he was wrong. Most prominent of all, he looked hurt. "Tai-"

Tai suddenly exploded as his newfound anger and resentment came to the surface. "You didn't take your own pill! But-but- what the hell? Are you kidding me? Why would you… What's wrong with you!"

"Let me explain-"

"Did you take the pill or didn't you?" Tai's low voice was forceful and commanding. Some may call it his 'leader' voice; he called it his 'don't-want-to-take-anymore-crap' voice.

Izzy stared at the taller boy not knowing how to respond. The truth wouldn't exactly help him here. His mind was reeling. Out of all of the scenarios, he had never pictured a confrontation coming this early.

Noticing the long pause, Tai repeated, "Did you?"

Izzy's voice was weak, but there wasn't a giggle in it. "…No."

* * *

><p>I feel so evil right now. Despite all logic, Izzy didn't take his own pill. Why he would do that? Gee, I don't know ;)<p>

Thank you for reading!


	9. W2 Monday

I don't own Best Friend by Toy Box... haha I just couldn't resist...

Beginning of week two! :)

* * *

><p><strong>Week Two<strong>

Monday

TK launched his backpack over his right shoulder with a content smile on his face. For once, he wasn't going to be late for school; in fact, he was early. Fifteen minutes ahead of schedule, he completed his homework, ate breakfast, and was dressed appropriately in his uniform.

He strolled towards the door ready for a stress free morning. That is of course, until after school when all of this pill business would come up. He still couldn't believe someone didn't take the pill, but he also couldn't stop Joe's words from echoing in his head.

_"One of you __probably didn't want to turn out like the 02 team."_

TK knew Kari, and she'd never lie to them, let alone him. She said she took the pill, so she took the pill…. But she had been mad at him for taking the pill, and she's always bringing up the 02 team. Thinking about that, it's hard to believe she would take it.

TK let out a frustrated sigh and pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. All he needed to worry about now was getting to school.

_"HOO HA HOO HA!_

_ NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA-!"_

He frantically searched for his flip phone to silence it. He grabbed it and then checked around the room. He obviously knew no one was around, but if someone heard his embarrassing ringtone…

He flipped open the phone to find he had received a text from Izzy.

** Need your help with the computer. Mind coming over?**

TK gave the phone a strange look hoping that in some way it would transfer over to the sender. By 'computer' Izzy meant the Digital World, and by 'coming over' he meant traveling to it. He has always been paranoid about someone reading through their messages, but with this Mori guy around now who could blame him?

TK skimmed the message once more before closing it to check the time. 'Fifteen minutes, huh?'

**You can count on me.**

TK never really bothered to ask questions because Izzy always had a reason for everything he did (and often a long, wordy one), but he couldn't help but wonder why he was needed. Their digimon are capable of handling just about anything that's thrown at them. They could digivolve to ultimate on their own, so what was so powerful that they'd need more strength than that?

Taking his backpack with him, TK went into his mom's at home office. He could just imagine how much trouble he'd be in if she knew he was using her work computer, but it was the closest portal.

It didn't take him long to find his digivice and pull it out of his backpack. He looked at the contraption fondly. He found it funny that it was still the newer model even though four of the six with that model weren't around.

Yet again, he shook away the thoughts and focused on what was happening at the moment. He hit a few buttons, clicked the mouse a couple of times, and got a Digi-port up and working on the computer.

His phone began playing his embarrassing ringtone again, and he opened it to find instructions from Izzy.

**Meet up with Pata. Not sure if you'll have to do anything or just check things out.**

TK scrunched up his nose. What was the point of going to the Digital World if Patamon might not need his help to fight? He held up his digivice to the portal anyway knowing that no matter what there was probably some sort of information Izzy expected him to earn from this trip.

The portal sucked him in, and before he knew it, he landed hard, facedown, into a grassy terrain. He forced himself to stand up to find himself coated in dirt. _'I just got here, and I already messed up my uniform.'_

TK spent a few moments surveying the familiar area. It had been awhile, but he knew he was somewhere in Server. He stood in a grassy plateau surrounded by intimidating, steep mountains.

He set his backpack down next to the television he'd just come out of and took out of it his D-terminal. He used the tracker on it to search for his partner, but it wasn't necessary.

Out of nowhere, a larger-than-life angel and a scarred unicorn with tainted black wings and a red helmet came tumbling towards him.

"Unimon…" TK whispered shocked to see Angemon fighting the usually so docile digimon.

The duo continued tumbling down the mountain. Angemon had a tight grip around the other but that didn't stop the digimon from trying to squirm away.

Just as the angel began to lose his grip, Unimon stopped squirming and opened his mouth wide as a new light emitted from it.

"Aerial attack!" The light came shooting out, and Angemon tried to dodge too late. It impacted his shoulder causing him to cry out in agony at such a close attack.

He shoved the digimon away from him and into the rocky mountain. He continued sliding alone the rest of the way down finally giving TK a good chance to look at him.

Angemon looked exhausted but pumped on adrenalin at the moment. His wings were tattered, and he was covered in dirt and scratches. On closer inspection, TK couldn't see anything too serious, but this was by no means Angemon's first fight of the day judging by how beat up he was.

As Unimon came charging at him, head down and horn aimed directly at him, the angel digimon focused his hands together and began charging right back.

"Hand of fate!" he screeched as they collided. Angemon's attack had hit right under the horn causing the horn to miss him entirely as the Unimon was flung back to the base of the mountain.

Unimon had stopped and was taking a breather. Angemon's eyes narrowed and he summoned his power knowing this might be his only chance to end this.

From a distance, he spun his rod before throwing it above his head like a javelin at the resting digimon.

"Angel rod!" The rod slammed into the side of the Unimon causing it to call out in pain. It kept crying out even after the rod boomeranged back to Angemon.

Unimon flailed its armor clad head about unsure of what to do. It finally decided the pain was too much to keep fighting and galloped up the mountain as fast as its throbbing form could carry it.

The angel, leaning over and breathing heavily, watched Unimon retreat all the way over the mountain. Once it had disappeared over the top a good minute ago, only then did Angemon de-digivolve to the still weary looking Patamon.

TK watched his partner a few seconds, still not making his presence known. Patamon flew to the ground and lay down ungracefully. He closed his eyes, and if TK didn't know any better, he'd say he wasn't only sleeping.

TK approached him cautiously with an unsure, "Hey."

And just like that, the digimon's round, blue eyes came back to life. He shot back into the air as if going on the defense until he noticed the owner of the voice and froze minus his still beating wings.

Patamon couldn't take his eyes off his partner, but he made no attempt to move. Part of him expected it to be some sort of trick and this wasn't TK at all, another wanted to embrace his partner he'd so long been deprived of but still another part argued that even if this was TK, Patamon had no reason to want to see him.

TK, feeling awkward and guilty to not have been there for his partner, tried to break the ice, "So I guess you, uh, didn't need my help with whoever that was."

"I don't know who it was. A lot of digimon have causing problems for no reason…. What are you doing here?" It was supposed to be an innocent and curious question but came out a bit harsh and accusing causing TK to rub the back of his head guiltily.

"Izzy asked me to stop by."

"Oh, right," the digimon replied with obvious disappointment. The only time he ever got to see TK in the past few years was when it was necessary, to fight, to plan, never just to visit. This more business like relationship coupled with the fact of how separated the two worlds were now had caused the humans and digimon to slowly drift from their friendships and bonds as children.

"It's been awhile," TK stated knowing his partner must be thinking something along those lines.

"Ever since I could digivolve to Magnaangemon without you, you haven't been around," Patamon added with a hint of resentment hidden in his voice.

"I know…. I am really sorry about that." TK's words were sincere. He wished he could see his digimon more; it was just hard. He didn't need him like when he was a dependent, little child, and Patamon didn't need him to fight, and sometimes when one of your double lives becomes unnecessary, it's hard to hold onto.

"So are you gonna visit more?" Patamon asked, eyes shining with a new hope while TK tried to hide his even guiltier emotions.

'_I've only got a month left,' _he thought desperately wishing he could tell his digimon about the pill, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. The human stayed silent unable to come up with a good response that could qualify as the truth.

"You know," TK finally spoke, "I should be going to school."

The digimon paused disheartened. "…If you think that's what important," Patamon replied solemnly causing another pain of guilt and even regret to surge through him.

He took one more look at Patamon before swooping down to grab his backpack and diving through the television. It took moments for the portal to dump him out in the desired location: the high school's computer room.

With a loud grunt, TK landed awkwardly on his side with arms and legs spread wide. He paused a moment, trying to compose himself before launching upright and surveying the room carefully. From past experience, he knew no one used the computer room first period, but that wasn't always the case. He shivered thinking about the grief he received from Izzy after popping in on a teacher's meeting.

He shivered again thinking about the grief he received from Patamon, but he knew he couldn't focus on that now. What's done is done.

Once deciding the coast was clear, TK looked over himself. His uniform was ruffled, brown slacks wrinkled and the front of his dark blue shirt still had a light coating of dirt. He tried to brush off at least some of it and spent some time flattening down his hair before catching a glance at the clock that showed he had about 30 seconds to get across the school to first period.

TK sprinted down the almost barren hallway and stopped right outside the door, got himself together, and walked casually into his first period, the dreaded Health class, just as the bell rang. He let out a sigh of relief and walked to his seat on the edge of the classroom. As usual, on the way he stole a glance at Davis who was entertaining himself quite well with a few paperclips.

He wished he could say he knew why Davis was in this class. Kari and he had to retake it thanks to the Digital World, but why did he? TK would probably never know considering, as far as Davis was concerned, they'd only ever talked on rare occasions in the past few years.

The blonde slipped into his usual seat to Kari's left and plopped his backpack on the floor only to be met by a disappointed but concerned frown.

"What?" TK asked innocently. He ran his fingers through his hair a couple more times to better smooth it down.

"You were in the Digital World." It was a disappointed statement, not a question. She didn't need to ask; it was the only reason he'd be walking in so close to the bell and looking so disheveled.

"What's wrong with that? Weren't you the one who didn't want to give it up?"

She paused contemplating. "Well yeah… but it's too late now. We'll have to leave the Digital World behind."

TK squinted slightly and rubbed the side of his head. What had happened? Did she change her mind on her own or perhaps there was more to it? "What if it's not too late?"

He froze having no idea why he would say that, but Joe's words kept snaking through his head.

"_One of you…"_

"What do you mean?" She asked curiously, but the end of her words was layered by the shrill, booming voice of their pre-historic hipster teacher.

"Let us begin class! We will be doing an out of class group assignment for the next couple of weeks."

There was a chorus of disapproving groans from the class that went unnoticed as the teacher readjusted her bedazzled glasses to better see her class list. "Now Mr. Takaishi… Ms. Kamiya, Mr.… Motomiya, you seem to be the only juniors in this class, so why don't you work together?"

Davis sat in the back of the class, completely unaware of what was going on since he'd been occupying his time stringing paperclips together.

"Mr. Motomiya!" she snapped causing the brunette to drop his paperclips and let them fall to the floor with a small series of tings.

"What!" He shouted louder than necessary as if he'd just been awoken from a day dream.

"You'll be with Kamiya and Takaishi for the next project," she ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am," he replied obediently. Satisfied, she began speaking to the whole class about the assignment again leaving Davis to discreetly pick up his paperclips.

Kari gulped and shot a panicked look at TK whose eyes popped slightly out of his head.

Well this should be interesting….

* * *

><p>"Well this is interesting…" Izzy trailed off as he looked over his notes all clamped messily onto his clipboard.<p>

"Your version of interesting or everyone else's?" Matt questioned lazily allowing his head to be propped up on his hand.

The redhead ignored the comment and continued studying the clipboard. He thought aloud, "I knew this would happen."

Joe looked over to Izzy. "That we all forgot things? Isn't that the point?"

"No, it's more than that…. As expected, you're all forgetting information about the Digital World, nothing major yet, a few digimon's names, a couple of events, but you've all forgotten information about each other as well."

Sora, from her seat on the couch between Matt and Joe, spoke up, "But aren't we only losing information about the Digiworld?"

Izzy finally let his eyes wander away from the clipboard to properly address Sora. "Yes, but with that, goes everything that comes with it. Think about it: how much would you know about the people sitting here if you hadn't been stuck with them for months in some computer dimension? Forget the dimension, forget everything in it, forget the people surrounding it. It makes perfect sense, but I didn't exactly predict it happening this early on."

Kari looked concernedly over to TK who sat attentively at the Izumi's kitchen table listening to Izzy's explanation. She used her elbow to tap him slightly causing him to shift his gaze to her. She whispered, "Just like 02."

TK nodded slightly unable to think of any way to reassure her things would turn out differently.

"Guess what, everybody!" Mimi called appearing in the doorway to the hallway she had been talking on the phone in. "I just finished talking to my parents, and I'm here to stay!"

"But I thought your spring break was over this week?" Kari questioned.

"It is, but Izzy doesn't want me leaving until we're done with this whole pill thing."

Matt smirked. "Yeah, I'm sure that's his reason."

Izzy shot him a cold stare before continuing with his recap. Mimi took a seat in a chair opposite the sullen Tai.

"The reactions to the pill have varied greatly. Kari, you've only forgotten a couple of miniscule events which is understandable considering you were questioned on both our adventures and the next generations, but Joe is at the other extreme forgetting several key points of the adventures."

Joe stuck a finger in the air. "In my defense, I never knew anything about 02 I wasn't there for."

Izzy had an incredulous expression. "Joe, you weren't able to tell me who Etemon was."

"I said he's not a good guy," the eldest replied triumphantly as if that was all he needed to know.

"Describe him," Izzy challenged.

Joe stopped to collect his thoughts. Whenever he thought of Etemon no picture would immediately pop into his head. His mind would go foggy, and he'd have to try and whisk away the fog, so he could see the figure hidden past it. "…He's, uh… a monkey." He glanced over to Sora who sat on his right. She gave a small nod, so he attempted to continue, "Who's yellow-"

"Orange."

"Oh same thing," Joe grumbled irritably slouching back in his seat.

"How much have we forgotten about each other?" Kari questioned obviously much more concerned about that than who Etemon was.

Izzy skimmed through a few papers and shrugged. "Enough to make a noticeable difference. Some people's addresses, middle names, Matt forgot birthdays-"

"I never remembered anyone's birthday!" Matt defended.

"Actually last time you could recall six out of eight, and now you only know yours."

Joe raised an eyebrow. "…You forgot your girlfriend and your brother's birthdays?"

Matt rubbed his temples unwilling to meet Sora's eyes that were undoubtedly directed at him. "It's been a long day…"

"What'd you forget, Izzy?"

Izzy snapped his head over to Tai. That was the first time he'd talked besides when he was forced to answer questions.

The leader sat in the corner, feet up on an ottoman, with a devious smirk. He still hadn't given Izzy a chance to explain himself and wasn't planning on it. He wanted everyone to find out what happened from the liar himself, so Tai was just going to sit back and wait for the genius to screw up, so he could call him out on it.

"Come again, Tai?" Izzy asked hoping he'd somehow heard the question wrong.

"I asked what you forgot." His voice rang innocent and curious. The only clue of his true intentions was the ever-present smirk.

The redhead gulped nervously and pretended to look through his notes as he held in a giggle. "Well… I forgot some dates and… basic… recognition."

"Which would be?"

"…Things we all forgot." He kept his teeth clenched tightly together to keep everything in.

Tai's smirk grew suggestive. "Oh, really? Like the rest of us?" He couldn't resist letting out a dark but melancholy laugh.

"Yes," Izzy hissed defiantly. He'd grown tense hoping that the brunette wouldn't give him up, not here, not now, not yet.

Tai merely shook his head and stood up while grabbing his jacket that lay over the edge of the chair. He began pacing slowly to the door and didn't even bother to turn around as he threw the words over his shoulder, "Good luck with being like the rest of us, Izzy."

* * *

><p>I'd like to point out how at the beginning, I just kind of through Koumi in there, and now I'm dropping all of these random hints about them... Oh how my mind strays...<p>

Thanks so much for reading! And a huge thanks to those who've been reviewing!


	10. W2 Tuesday

Don't own One Week by Barenaked Ladies or Leggos :(

Sorry this took awhile! I've been busy and you know... I wrote this whole thing today and yesterday. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

><p><span>Tuesday<span>

"Alright, class," begun the teacher as she clasped her hands together causing her many bracelets to clang against one another, "I will be assigning each of your groups a topic, and I expect you all to begin working on it outside of school ASAP."

No groans came from the class, but you could expect the students to be imagining some very colorful thoughts. No one liked projects, let alone ones that were dragged outside of the classroom and into their lives.

The health teacher, Mrs. Zith, surveyed the room with her bulging, cinnamon eyes. As if on a whim, she pointed to the various groups seated around the classroom and gave them a topic. Upon reaching TK, Kari, and Davis, one word came out that caused TK to have to stop himself from laughing aloud at the irony.

"Amnesia."

To the blonde's surprise, Kari's eyes lighted up at the word.

After class, they walked down the hallway, Kari talking furiously.

"Isn't this great? Davis is in our group, and the topic is amnesia. It'll be too easy."

"What will?" He inquired.

She spoke as though it was obvious or he had already been informed of her little plan. "Seeing if Davis knows anything or could help us with those new digimon attacks."

TK delicately reminded, "His memory was completely erased, Kari. Besides, in a few weeks, we won't even be able to help."

"I know, I know," she dismissed waving a hand in the air, "That doesn't mean we can't talk to him."

The blonde observed her for a moment. He didn't understand why she'd even be thinking about this when the 02 team had been lost ages ago. Although wasn't it just the other day he saw Cody and felt the same need Kari did, to contact them, to change things, to not give up on their old friends.

It wasn't so much giving up, as moving on. Something they'd have to do anyway in a matter of weeks. The fact that Kari was thinking of contacting 02 showed that she wasn't thinking like her days were numbered yet another reminder to TK that it made perfect sense for her to have not taken the pill.

"TK," Kari said snapping a finger in front of the boy's face to draw his attention back to the present. "You better keep walking, or you'll get trampled in these hallways."

* * *

><p>Tai did his best to shove six textbooks into his pint sized backpack, but every way of organization he tried ended with him carrying some of them which he normally wouldn't mind doing if it weren't for the three binders and a folder occupying his hands.<p>

By some miracle, six of the textbooks were in the bag, and he watched the last with a look of indifference.

_'I am already failing Home Ec.,'_ he thought before abandoning the textbook on his desk. He hauled the backpack over one shoulder and then the other, barely remembered to stick a pencil behind his ear, gathered all of his binders and lifted one foot in the air towards the door before an earsplitting noise coming from his pocket caused him to drop everything. Literally.

_Chickity China the Chinese chicken  
>You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'<br>Watchin' X-Files with no lights on  
>We're dans la mai-<em>

He growled in frustration before whipping the cellular device to his ear without even bothering to check the caller ID. "What?"

There was a short pause on the other line before an uncertain Izzy could be heard. "Tai? I need you to do something…"

The brunette looked around at his scattered supplies. _'I really dropped everything for him?'_

He took a seat in the middle of the mess while holding the phone between his shoulder and ear. His words came out just as harsh as intended. "Whadda do you want?"

The genius's voice sounded business-like and professional, but Tai could tell he hadn't appreciated the greeting. It almost made the leader feel bad… almost.

"I called to request your assistance with the Digital World. TK went there yesterday, and Digimon have been starting fights left and right about nothing, and our partner's are taking the brunt of it. I need you to stop by today and see if you can figure anything out."

Tai took the words in but felt he needed to ask the question that had been pestering him through the whole explanation. "Why me?"

Another pause. He strained his ears just in case Izzy had started saying something.

The redhead finally answered truthfully, "Everyone is busy or… I didn't know who else to call."

Tai nodded not that Izzy could see it. His answer remained cold, but it was an answer none the less

"Fine, I'll head over."

* * *

><p>Between a rock and a hard place. That's how most might describe the investigator's current situation, but in an effort not to stand too cliché, Mori liked to think he was stuck between idiocy and fate.<p>

No matter how you looked at it, he was in deep, deep trouble.

The police found out he'd been laid off, so now with no team, no resources, and no credibility, Mori was positively and utterly stuck. It was hopeless; there was nothing he could do to continue his case.

But then, from where he sat with his head down on the kitchen table lacking the motivation to even raise it, he watched his son Mikey innocently building miscolored Leggo blocks into what Mori thought was a watering can but Mikey knew was a space ship.

The sight almost brought a smile to the defeated man's face. There was still his son, still his wife too, to think about.

A sigh escaped the investigator as he rolled his head in the other direction. He knew all along, but it had just returned to the forefront of his mind: They were his reason for completing this case, and he would… no matter what it takes.

* * *

><p>The youngest Kamiya scratched the side of her head thoughtfully as she looked over the guidelines. "So we need information on the definition, history, causes, effects and… a lot of other stuff and to present it in an 'interesting' and 'creative' way."<p>

Davis snorted from his seat at the Kamiya's kitchen table across from TK. "The rest of the class is freshmen; interesting and creative means a power point."

Kari laughed boisterously while TK just smiled half-heartedly. While he found the whole situation extremely uncomfortable, she was taking the opportunity to do anything she could to get close to Davis. She just knew that somewhere inside of him was their old friend.

She placed her elbow on the table while leaning in towards Davis. "So what do you know about amnesia?"

He shrugged, hands flittering the pages of his closed textbook. "Not much, it happens in movies. They'll hit their head and forget who they are."

Kari nodded in a teacher like manner. "Right, amnesia is what you call memory loss, so when _someone_ can't remember something or _someone_ from the _past_… it's called amnesia. Have you ever forgotten anything important, Davis?"

He looked a tad confused by the suggestive question, but he answered bluntly, "My math homework sometimes, but it's not always an accident."

She forced another giggle and tried again, possibly with even more eerie sweetness, "I mean something really important like… family, _friends_, events, _places_, people, _adventures_."

To her delight, Davis's eyes lit up at the mention of adventure, but they dimmed again once he said, "I'd never forget an adventure! It's too much… of an adventure!"

TK pried his eyes away from the textbook page he'd pretended to be reading to give Kari a suspicious sideways glance. "What are you talking about?"

"The project," she answered innocently, but her sweet smile didn't fool him for a second.

"The project's not about him," TK stated hoping she'd get the message that none of this was about finding the old Davis.

The teenagers spent the next couple of hours working on their project, sometimes feverishly and sometimes absentmindedly. Either way, they got a lot of work done, but TK had spent a majority of the night keeping Kari from mentioning anything about the Digimon to Davis. After the soccer player left, he confronted her.

"Kari," he started shaking his head slowly while packing up his things, "you can't."

She folded her arms knowing exactly what he meant. "And why not?"

"You know why," he reminded gently.

She threw her hands in the air and cried out in frustration, "So what if we only have a few weeks? So what if they don't know who we are? What's wrong with trying? If we succeed, we get to work with them one more time, and if we fail no harm done because they'll just think we're insane and move on! Please, TK, don't you get it? The problems in the Digiworld now, those digimon… this is our last chance to fight alongside 02 and the older kids."

TK froze, two trains of thought going through his head simultaneously.

The first, and he'll admit the more dominant, was honing in on how she said 'our last' implying that she had taken the pill. Of course, she could just be saying that, and it really meant his last…

The second mulled over what she was saying. He was going to miss the other digidestined more than anything (Ignoring that he'd forget them which really only darkens the situation). They had been his friends, his teammates, for years. Maybe they did need one last hurrah, but to recruit the 02 team? Could it even be done?

He shrugged off the last thought. There was no point in not trying.

"Alright," he decided, a huge smile spreading over Kari's face, "we'll recruit 02."

* * *

><p>After hours of classes, it was already dark out by the time Tai got his chance. He chucked his stuff down on his bed, whipped out his digivice, and brought up a digi-port on the computer.<p>

By force of habit, he took one last look around the room to make sure no one was watching before holding up the device and bracing himself for what was to come.

Not even a moment passed before he opened his eyes to a barren landscape and a sore shoulder. He stood up wrenching his poor shoulder while getting a better picture of the area Izzy had asked him to enter into.

He stood on the side of a not-so-steep mountain. In all directions there was nothing but dust, dirt, and stone. It felt completely lifeless, and he was surprised that there was actually supposed to be something worth finding here.

Only moments later, he spotted someone well worth the search.

At the bottom of the mountain, Tai could make out the outline of a small dinosaur, and a grin spread past both his cheeks.

He took in a deep breath and placed both hands around his mouth bellowing, "AGUMON!" There was no response, so he came running down the mountain, quickly picking up speed, all the while shouting out his partner's name. When he was only about eight feet away, the digimon heard the call and turned around just to see his partner trip and stumble. With a sly smirk, he finished the accident by going into a barrel roll and jumping onto Agumon, embracing him wholly.

Agumon, muffled by being pressed into Tai's shirt, said, "Thanks, Tai, but I'm kind of sore right now."

Tai's face fell instantly, and he stepped away from his partner all the while keeping a firm hand to his shoulder. "I heard about the fighting. How's it been going?"

The dinosaur digimon didn't meet the human's eyes as he spoke gloomily, "Bad digimon have been coming out of nowhere. They're attacking left and right. Things have been tough… especially without you." He took a step back allowing Tai's hand to fall from his shoulder.

Guilt swept over him instantly, guilt he'd convinced himself wasn't there. He tried to defend himself, "I've been busy; we all have. I promise we'll help you with these Digimon from now on!" He bit his tongue knowing he had just made a promise that couldn't be kept for long.

A new hope twinkled in Agumon's eyes, but they still appeared dull and tired. Tai finally looked his partner up and down.

Agumon was leaning heavily on one side and was covered in bruises and marks that were obviously from the recent fights. Tai even thought he saw a burn mark on the rookie's side.

His chocolate brown eyes looked to Agumon with pure concern, but the digimon merely shrugged it off. Before even giving his partner a chance to speak, Agumon assured, "I'll be fine, Tai. I'm built for this."

The brunette nodded slowly, faking a smile. "I know. Just be careful, alright?"

"I'm always careful!" Agumon protested causing Tai to chuckle.

"SOLAR RAY!" shouted a voice from the distance only mere seconds before Agumon was blown back by a golden beam. He went flying a few yards and landed hard on his back.

"Agumon!" Tai called. All of his old habits coming back to him, he clutched his digivice tightly in his hand and ran over to his fallen partner. On the way he caught sight of the attacker, a centarumon.

"Here, let me help you! You can digivolve to Wargreymon!"

To the human's surprise, Agumon hesitated for a moment. He'd gotten so use to working without Tai's help, that he almost didn't want the cushion just in case it would be pulled out from under him not long after.

"Come on!" There was obvious irritation in Tai's voice that Agumon knew was only concern. Tai's eyes never left the quickly approaching enemy.

The digimon nodded slowly, and Tai held up his digivice.

A few words later, replaced with the small, orange dinosaur was a metal clad monster decked out in armor. Tai couldn't help but grin with pride at the sight. He missed Wargreymon.

The centarumon was picking up speed and seconds away from colliding with Wargreymon.

"Great tornado!" Tai's digimon turned and whirled itself as hard and as fast as digitally possible at centarumon. Needless to say, he went flying but not before getting a good look at Tai.

Looking the digimon in the eye surprised the boy. Normally, digimon would totally ignore him when immersed in a fight, but this one focused on him on its entire trip back and into a large rock positioned on the side of the mountain.

Good thing he wears a helmet. Centarumon was down for less than a second before shooting right up and attacking with another solar ray.

Wargreymon braced himself, ready to dodge before realizing the attack wasn't headed for him at all.

Tai stood stiff. Every instinct he had told him to move, but his shock and fear paralyzed him long enough for the attack to get close.

Wargreymon came diving in, shoving his partner out of the way but not without getting hit himself dead on. The digimon cried out in pain then wordlessly scooped up his partner and flew over the mountain to a crevice out of sight.

Tai was breathing hard; Wargreymon was breathing harder. The human forgot his panic for a moment to focus on his partner. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," came the gruff voice, "just tired. This fight is not what I need right now. Here, stay here, and I'll go finish him off." And with that, Wargreymon flew out leaving Tai to wait.

It didn't make any sense that a digimon would go for him. Sure, it had happened before, but that was because they were specifically out to get the digidestined… which couldn't be the case here because the digimon didn't care about them anymore. They already saved the world; they weren't needed, weren't wanted.

And yet there was centarumon thinking the puny human was a more valuable target than a mega. There had to be a reason.

Tai dared to peak out of the crevice where he saw no signs of Wargreymon yet. He sighed and went back to sitting and twiddling his thumbs, shaken and confused.

* * *

><p>TK's situation, my friends, with Kari and the pill is what we like to call dramatic irony. Who knew I could take something from English class and apply it to my writing!<p>

Thanks for reading! :)


	11. W2 Wednesday

Hey, guys! Sorry this took forever. School play's this weekend, so I haven't had much time at all to write. Expect faster updates after this weekend!

Without further ado...

* * *

><p><span>Wednesday <span>

Kari did her best to stroll nonchalantly into the Inoue's department store, but she couldn't hide her excitement for long. She let out a short yip of celebration before stopping herself in the frozen food aisle to compose herself.

No matter how excited she was about contacting her team, they didn't know her and were going to be thoroughly freaked out if she acts so excited to see any of them. She took a deep breath and walked out of the aisle and to the register where she could plainly see a certain lavender-haired teen.

Putting on her warmest smile, she approached the teen.

"Hello," Yolei droned, "are you ready to check out, Miss?"

The formality made Kari want to cringe. In fact, everything about this girl bothered her. It was off; she was still lanky, still didn't want to work at her parent's store, still Yolei, big glasses and all… but somehow not.

"Actually," Kari said still sporting a cheerful smile, "I wanted to talk to you."

She suddenly looked embarrassed and for the first time, really looked at Kari. "Oh, uh… do I know you?"

"Good question, do you?"

"…I just asked you that."

"Right... You see, my name is Kari Kamiya, and I wanted to ask you a few questions."

"…okay," Yolei watched her expectantly with a look that showed how crazy she thought Kari was.

Just wait until she hears what this girl has to say. "This is hard to explain, but if you could just wait until the end that would be great." She took a deep breath and began, "It all started- well, for you anyway- four years ago on the first day of school. Somehow, you ended up in the computer room with a strange device-"

"I don't remember that," Yolei piped, and Kari withheld an eye roll and a smile. Typical Yolei who always has to give her two cents.

"I know you don't," she assured, "but go with it, alright?

"So it turns out that device was something called a digivice that can take you to another world called the Digital World where these things called Digital Monsters are-"

"Other worlds?" the purple-haired girl snorted, but Kari ignored her.

"You and me and some other kids found out there was evil in that other world, and together we defeated it and along the way grew to love that other world,"-Kari sighed deeply thinking about how important the Digital World used to be to them- "…but not everyone was so excepting of the Digital World and once they found out about ot, they didn't want anything to do with it, so powerful beings in the other world erased our memories, so they could live in peace away from us."

There was barely a stop between the end of Kari's speech and Yolei's words. "Why wouldn't someone want to be part of something as cool as another world?"

"Good question," Kari repeated. "Would you want to be part of this other world?"

She nodded her head vigorously. "Oh definitely, that is, if it existed of course. Thanks though, really entertaining story."

Kari frowned. "But it wasn't-"

"Sorry but it looks like there's other customers coming," Yolei explained while looking past Kari to an elderly couple walking towards the register. "You need to move out of the way."

"But I'm not done!" she exclaimed more forceful than intended.

Yolei looked at her in surprise for the short outburst, and Kari hung her head a little.

"Alright… I'll talk to you when you aren't so busy."

* * *

><p>"Ew! Why would you ever put the cosmos by the geraniums?"<p>

Sora hid her amused smile at her friend's forgetfulness. "Gee, I don't know. Maybe someone told me to?"

That made Mimi stop as she looked up from the register. "Me?" Sora nodded. "Oh no, see I'm forgetting everything now!" She put her head down in her hands prompting Sora to walk over and place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"No you're not, Mimi," she soothed.

"Yes, I am," the distressed girl shouted, throwing her hands up in the air and thereby forcing the comforting hand off her shoulder, "Izzy said I'm one of the ones losing my memory the fastest! I won't know any of you, and I'll go back to America, and I'll never see you again, and I'll spend the rest of my life alone!"

"Mimi, relax! Get a grip!" Sora commanded moving ever closer to her friend, visually worried and shocked from the unexpected outburst.

"A grip on what?" the girl snapped, "Everything's gonna disappear! What if I forget who I am? What's my name, Sora, WHAT'S MY NAME?"

"Mimi!" Sora exclaimed worriedly, grabbing her friend's shoulders and about an outburst away from slapping her. Her voice was brought down to barely above a whisper, and she was well aware that even though the store was empty now, a customer could walk in at any moment.

"You're alright. We'll still have each other. All we're supposed to forget is the Digital World."

"No, it's not! You heard Izzy! We're forgetting each other, what am I supposed to do without all of you? I'm a mess! Five thousand miles away from Earth! I need someone to pull me back down!"

"Mimi, sit down and calm down!" Sora ordered. Mimi had sprung up out of her seat while she was talking.

Sora's ears heard the tell-tale bell of someone walking through the door, and she automatically stepped away from Mimi and out onto the floor. She calmly explained, "We have a customer now, so you have to stay calm."

Mimi took a few deep breaths and messed around with her hair a moment before catching sight of her friend. "Sora, close your mouth. We're not trying to attract flies."

The redhead shut her mouth, but her eyes remained wide. "Look who just walked in."

Towering over the shelves of flowers was none other than Benjamin Mori.

"What is he doing here?" Mimi hissed. Sora merely shrugged, eyes never leaving the investigator.

He strolled to the register Mimi sat at, a twisted grin contorted his face.

"Hello, girls," he began with an eerily calm tone, "I told you we weren't finished, didn't I?"

* * *

><p>TK sighed deeply to gather himself. He didn't even know what he was going to say.<p>

_ 'Hey, is Cody here? He doesn't know me, but we used to be friends!'_

_ 'Could I come in please? I need to speak to your son, Cody Hida, as soon as possible.'_

_ 'Cody. Talk. Me. Now.'_

He ran a hand through his shaggy hair and took a small step forward. Well, less a step and more him dragging his feet closer to what might possibly be the conversation that'll get him locked up in a mental institute.

TK blinked while throwing a foot backwards, mind now completely focused on his last thought.

Mental institute? Sure, he was about to try and get Cody to believe in other dimensions and computer data with feelings, but the kid would never report him or his secrets…. He wouldn't, right? Even if he didn't know TK and didn't know about the Digital World, there had to be something inside him that had enough loyalty not to give away his secrets.

And then an even more unsettling thought than the mental institute: this won't be the Cody he knows, the Cody who's his friend, who eventually he became very close to. This will be starting over at day one with him.

He remembered the first time he showed up at Cody's door. He was pretty sure it was important. (Then again when you're a kid, everything's the biggest deal in the world)

Cody didn't want to let him in; he became very uncomfortable and fidgety. The kid never did have good social skills… or trusting skills. TK could remember just how much it took to get Cody to speak up and be comfortable enough with the team to voice his opinions.

"Hello?"

TK was hurtled back into the present. He blinked a few times trying to focus on the shorter, but not as short as he remembered, brunette standing in the doorway.

"Did you need something?" The young teen's voice was quite and monotone; TK wasn't sure if this made him sound timid or emotionless, but what he was sure of was that this was definitely Cody.

"Uh, yes actually," TK started, "mind if I come in?"

Cody's eyes (that had yet to meet TK's) traveled back behind the door he clung to. He avoided giving an answer. "Who are you?"

The blonde resisted the urge to facepalm. Introducing himself would've been a good way to start. "I'm TK. I live down on the fifth floor. You're Cody, right?"

"…Right."

"Right so I need to talk to you about… important stuff."

Maybe it was the pleading blue eyes, but something got Cody to agree. He still wouldn't let TK in his home and squeezed out from behind the door and into the narrow hallway finally allowing the other a good look at him.

Cody was definitely taller but most likely below average height for his age. His hair had grown out and lost its natural straightness, now a bit wavier and obviously flattened down, but his emerald green eyes didn't change one bit, still as unreadable as ever.

TK took a breath knowing that his best bet was the direct approach. He pushed all of the possible outcomes out of his head, and asked bluntly, "Do you think there are other worlds?"

Cody scrunched up his nose, and TK prepared himself to be sent to the funny farm. Oddly enough he was met with a look of shock mixed with curiosity.

"Do you?" the brunette asked in return.

TK paused; he hadn't anticipated him being the one to answer the questions. "…There could be. What would you think of it if there was?"

Cody took a moment to think it over which raised TK's spirits a little; he was actually interested in this other world. He mused, "Depends what kind of world we're talking about."

The blonde tilted his head. "What kind?"

"A good one or a bad one?" he clarified as if it was obvious.

A discreet smile found its way to TK. This was still Cody, seeing the world with as little gray area as ever. TK answered truthfully, "A good one with bad in it."

The younger never responded, and the elder wanted desperately to know what he was thinking. "…Why is there bad in it?"

TK hesitated but knew he had to be blunt and get it out there. "I'm not sure, but… it's up to us to find out."

"Huh?" The teen was thoroughly confused.

"You see, a long time ago we saved that world with the rest of our team, and now we have to do it again." Seeing Cody's reaction, he added, "Your memory was erased not long after the last time we did this."

"That's convenient," Cody muttered to himself.

"What?"

He explained, "If I 'don't remember' you could get me to believe anything. That's just too convenient for comfort."

"But- but it's the truth!" TK fumbled. He'd never thought about it that way, but he really did have the opportunity to tell Cody anything if he believed the memory wipe.

Cody shrugged calmly. "Maybe it is the truth, but you don't have any solid proof right now."

The blonde ran a hand through his hair. "Not _right_ now…"

The younger nodded sympathetically and began retreating back to his door. "Maybe you can find me again when you have proof."

With that, Cody shut the door leaving behind TK who was already mulling over a new strategy.

* * *

><p>"Hold this."<p>

"Hold wha- oof!"

Just as he was walking into the Izumi's apartment, Matt was cut off mid-word by Izzy shoving a large stack of printer paper into his arms. He studied the paper on top that was plastered with screen shots of a centarumon.

"What is all this?" He asked apprehensively.

Izzy whipped his head at Matt then right back to his computer. "I've been doing some research-"

"Say no more," Matt interrupted not really wanting to hear a long explanation, "summarize."

He shot his friend an annoyed look before summarizing, "Due to the attacks in the Digital World against Tai, it can be assumed these digimon are after us meaning we're needed for something ergo we have to talk to Gennai and find out what 'something' is. I called you down here to help me because I'm not in Tai's well wishes at the moment."

"Yeah, what'd you do anyway?" Matt asked as Izzy gestured for them to walk into the kitchen.

"He hasn't told you?" That honestly shocked the genius. He knew Tai wasn't telling anyone about the pill, and it was all part of his plan to make him squirm, but Izzy expected him to at least tell Matt or someone instead of keeping it all to himself.

"Nope," Matt grunted while plopping the papers down onto the kitchen table.

"Oh well it's nothing… just, uh, creative differences." Izzy gulped. Trying to keep up his lies wasn't easy with the added pressure that at any moment Tai could decide to rat him out. What would the others think? They wouldn't be happy; that's for sure, and the anxiety and growing tension of waiting for his secret to get out that only he could sense were eating him up.

The blonde watched Izzy suspiciously. He was certain he wasn't being told everything but also realized if he wasn't, he wouldn't get it out of Izzy anyway.

"Right," he started, "so we'll talk to Gennai and then what?"

The redhead shrugged. "Do some investigating, fix the problem, fight some monsters."

Objections came rushing into Matt's head all at once. If they had to help the Digital World again, that meant possibly going back to a time like when it controlled their lives, when it took up all their time, and when it had caused his band to break up. He didn't want that; things were just getting back to normal!

Despite all of that, Matt couldn't stop himself from cracking the smallest of grins about returning to his childhood adventures. "So what I'm hearing is we're back?"

Izzy hesitated, battling within himself over whether he should say more. There was so much he wanted to say, so much that the others didn't know.

"… I guess we are."

* * *

><p>So you can probably tell what gonna happen next to some degree?<p>

Thanks for reading! I really appreciate it!


	12. W2 Thursday

Thursday

Her bright orange pencil tapped steadily on her ancient school desk as her mind wandered, letting her thoughts go to anything but health class.

To say the least, Kari was disappointed by the outcome of yesterday's recruit. Yolei and Cody wouldn't be easy to convince that there was another world. She recalled their first trip to the Digital World and their utter shock and awe from the sight. Without taking them there or shoving proof in their faces, it wasn't going to be easy for them to believe anything.

She awoke from her thoughts to fing her gaze on a rainbow-colored, 'hugs not drugs' poster on the opposing wall. She shifter her gaze to the blonde slouching in the seat to her left. TK wasn't too ecstatic about yesterday's failed attempt either. It had left him and Kari both irritated and on edge since they had no clue where to go from here. That is, until Kari got an idea.

She used her arm to nudge TK, and he bolted upright in his chair as if he'd been so zoned out he fell asleep. First, his eyes went to the worksheet in front of him that he was supposedly completing then to the oblivious teacher in the front of the room and finally to Kari who leaned close to him and whispered in his ear.

"We need to take Yolei and Cody to the Digital World."

TK scrunched up his nose and pulled back from her. "Why?"

"We won't convince them any other way," she reasoned.

He shook his head slowly and turned on her with empathetic eyes. "We can't take them there until we can trust them."

She scoffed, "This is Yolei and Cody we're talking about!"

TK quickly hushed her, and she looked around the room apologetically hoping no one overheard.

TK continued, keeping his voice low, "No, Kari, that's it. It's _not_ them. They don't know us."

"Yes, they do! Even if they don't know it… It'll come back to them." Her voice trailed off as she doubted her own words.

He gave her a sideways glance. "You can't seriously believe they're the same with their memory wiped."

She folded her arms. "Maybe I do." Honestly, she didn't believe that, but by this point, she was too stubborn to be proven wrong.

He thought aloud, "Then why wouldn't you take the pill if you thought you'd be the same?"

He instantly froze as did Kari. He wanted to slap himself. His suspicions had caused accusing thoughts like that to pop into his head more and more, but he'd never let them slip out like that. By the look on Kari's face, she wanted to slap him too had they not been sitting in the middle of a classroom.

She settled for hissing in a way that made him cringe. "You think I'd do that? Why? Because you've lost more of your memory than I have? What, are you jealous?"

He started into an apology, "Kari, that not what I meant to-… wait, jealous?"

"Yes, jealous. It's not my fault you think a world that's been your second home for years is so dispensable." Her words were harsh and cut a little too close to home. If it weren't the heat of the moment, she might have realized that.

He was snarling in an eerily calm way. "I'm so sorry I'm not dependent and afraid of change like you. Maybe I just know how to grow up."

"Maybe you're too afraid to hold on," she growled.

"Maybe you need to let go," he retorted.

"_Bring-ring-ring-ring-ring"_

The rest of the class got up and out into the hallway in record time. TK and Kari hadn't even noticed them packing up. Their eyes were locked; it could've been frustration from yesterday or fear from what's been happening these last two week and what was about to come, but they had taken out only a fraction of their anger out on each other and left the classroom in opposite directions, still fuming.

* * *

><p>'<em>A thousand eleven, a thousand twelve… huh, maybe they're not home.'<em>

TK rang the doorbell again and stepped back a couple feet. He couldn't believe he was doing this. Here he was, he'd ditched school after first period (something he'd never dream of doing for anything but dire Digiworld matters) and hopped on a subway to their last hope in Tamachi.

TK didn't know what he'd been thinking. It was the middle of the day and last he heard, both of Ken's parents worked and the dim hope he had that Ken wouldn't be at school was being extinguished.

Ignoring his doubts, he continued to stay posted at the door for a good couple more minutes. He was caught off guard when someone actually did open the door.

Standing in front of him was none other than Ken Ichijouji. He looked different than in TK's memory; in fact, he even looked different from the few times TK had caught him on the news for academics. It didn't look like he'd smiled in weeks. His hair covered his eyes that probably were as pitiful as the rest of him. The skin and bones that was Ken slouched, clothes wrinkled, and gave off an overwhelming aura of despair.

But in the true nature that is TK, he smiled and politely said, "Hello. Ken?"

"Another one? What do you want?" The hostile words didn't sound like Ken. Oddly enough, TK wished that he could at least sound like the emperor; he would know how to handle him.

Figuring he should introduce himself this time, he explained, "My name is TK. I go to Odaiba High School, and I need your help with something."

The other teen, who was supposedly still a genius, rolled his eyes, and TK wanted to cringe. "More tutoring."

"No, nothing like that!" TK assured knowing he couldn't lose the attention of the already uninterested and reserved Ken, "I wanted to talk about you!"

He scoffed, "You're doing a report on me? What, Einstein was already taken?"

TK blinked not particularly sure if this Ken was conceited or this was a normal occurrence. "It's not a report. I know something about your past that I think you deserve to know."

Despite his scornful words, Ken's face had stayed emotionless and hidden, but his mouth now formed into a scowl. "I highly doubt you know something about my past that I don't." With that, he tried to slam the door, but TK reacted too fast. His foot was in the door, and his eyes were trained on Ken's behind the mess of hair.

"Please, you don't understand. I just need a few minutes." His voice came out ten times more desperate than intended, but at least it worked. Ken stepped back and let him in all the while not looking the least bit happy about it.

TK walked in and looked around with a tinge of nostalgia. He remembered everything in the apartment as though he had been there only yesterday and not years ago in a buried past; the dusty floorboards, the sagging spider plant in the corner, the fridge coated with magnets from what must have been every business in town.

He went and casually sat down at the kitchen table. Ken only scowled. "Talk. What about my past?"

Not wanting to get into some 'other life out there' debate, TK decided it best to just start his explanation as a hypothetical situation. He could work on Ken believing it later. "Now, I'm not sure how you feel about this, so let's just say for a minute there are other worlds, alright?"

The genius nodded, the only indication that he was even aware of TK's presence as he leaned on the wall and let his hair droop.

TK continued, "And those other worlds have problems just like ours with fighting and war and stuff, so they look to an outside force for help: our world. But it's more like certain people in our world that they can contact, so they contact them, prepare them, and they fix that other world… a couple of times."

TK hoped some of this made sense to him. It was awful hard to explain without giving away too much information. "That means that the other world is safe, and the people from our world don't have to hang around anymore, but now our world is in trouble because they found out about the other world, and they're panicking and trying to change the other world, so we separate the worlds and make everything go back to normal, but now the other world is in trouble again, and it needs help from the people it contacted before."

He finished in a panic, just wanting to get the words out. "In order to save that world, we need help and to make sure our world doesn't figure out what's going on."

There was a long pause in which Ken didn't move. TK half-considered poking him awake before he muttered curiously, "We?"

"Huh?"

"You started saying 'we' like we were the ones who could contact this other world."

Leave it to the genius to figure everything out. TK might of well have told him everything outright.

Despite already knowing, Ken spoke hypothetically. "Let's say that, if such a world exists, we are those people who can connect to it, except it seems that you know of that world, and I don't. Now why is that?"

TK also talked hypothetically, "Something must have happened like you having your memory erased."

Ken scratched his head, and in the process pushed several clumps of hair out of his face. Now only a few stray strands stood in the way of the world and Ken's rich dark eyes. The eyes turned to him, and all TK could think was how bright they used to be. But then again the dull eyes were probably as bright as they'd been in awhile judging by his interested expression. "So what happens in this memory I can't recall?"

TK paused. There was so much to tell. He better start with the good stuff. "Well those of us who are connected to the other world have formed a team to defeat the evils that caused the problems in the other world… and we're all friends."

"Friends." He repeated the word as though it were a foreign concept or contagious like the stomach flu.

TK thought back to that morning and his blow up with Kari, last week and the boys' arguments over the pill. They used to bounce back from things like that so quickly but now with their time as digidestined coming to an end he wasn't so sure. "Yeah, good friends… A lot changes."

"Tell me more," Ken demanded, and TK grinned at his excitement.

"Does that mean you believe me?"

"About what?"

'_What do you think?'_ TK moved his hands around the air either in frustration or a second attempt to explain without words. "The other world and you being a part of it."

Ken was nodding before the blonde even finished talking. He even thought he caught a hint of a smile on the raven-haired boy's face.

TK sighed in relief. They'd convinced one out of four. He prepped himself to explain in more detail.

"Good because the other world needs your help again."

At the word 'help,' TK swore Ken visibly flinched, any hint of a smile completely obliterated. His voice came out cold, even colder than when he'd first opened the door. "You only came here so I could help you?"

TK blinked not seeing the problem. "Well, yeah."

"Get out."

"But-"

"GET OUT!"

Ken pushed himself off the wall and was heading towards the table. TK stood up immediately and held his hands up in defense.

TK was reduced to pleading as the other mentally forced him out of the apartment with his fiery eyes and snarl. "Whatever I did, I'm sorry, but you have to listen-"

"I don't _have_ to do anything! Get out of my apartment!"

Ken was closing in, and TK backpedaled to the door. Honestly with the despairing, and probably weak, condition that Ken was in, TK wouldn't have a problem physically staying in the apartment but couldn't help retreating from the pure malice and rage of Ken.

"Ken, please, you really don't understand!" He went on, but his voice was drowned out by the insanely inappropriate noise coming from his pocket:

_"HOO HA HOO HA!_

_ NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA!_

_ Have you ever been in looooove?"_

An even red hue spread over his face, and he expected his friend to laugh at his embarrassment. But then he remembered this wasn't his friend, and he was in no mood to laugh. After letting the ringtone play for much longer than he should have, TK answered the phone.

"This isn't a good time," he whispered into the phone while sneaking a look at the irate Ken.

"Well make it one. Izzy needs us." He instantly recognized the voice of his older brother.

"Now?" With that, TK had been scooted out the door far enough, and Ken slammed it. He tried to reach out one more time but knew today was not the day to get through to his former friend.

"No, after school. Are you in class? I was planning on just leaving a message, but you answered so…"

TK hurriedly replied, "Uh, yeah, class, huge math test in a few minutes, need to cram, gotta go!"

Matt, who hadn't sounded the least bit suspicious before, had an accusing tone to his voice. "Why are you lying?"

The fact that his brother always knew what he was up to could be both helpful and hurtful. Especially the latter when he was trying to get away with skipping school.

"I'm not," he defended, "What's Izzy need?"

Matt didn't believe that in the slightest but also didn't see a reason to question him further. "He needs as many of us as possible to go talk to Gennai and find out what's going on."

TK asked apprehensively, "Kari's not going, right?"

"…Why?"

TK paused not wanting to have to explain his fight with his best friend only a few hours previous. Due to that, his words came out uneasy. "She, I kind of- There was... we're not on the best terms at the moment."

He thought he heard Matt mutter something about the Kamiyas in general before continuing into the phone, "What did you do?"

"Me? Maybe it was her fault!"

"Fine, what happened?" The elder honestly hadn't been trying to place blame on his younger brother, just figure out what was wrong.

"We got into this fight…" he trailed off not wanting to explain in detail what it was about, "Just please don't invite her to see Gennai… or she can go, and I can stay. I don't mind."

"Actually, Izzy already said don't call Kari because she could tell Tai," Matt explained

TK blinked. "Oh, um, alright... What's with Tai and Izzy anyway?"

There was a pause where he knew his older brother must be rolling his eyes. "Who knows, who cares. They're big boys; they'll solve their problems eventually, so are you coming?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'll be there as soon as possible."

"So after school?"

"…right." He looked around guiltily at the apartment complex's seventh floor hallway. "See you then."

* * *

><p>Matt hung up his cell phone and gently massaged his temples. Only half of the digidestined were able to come. He remembered the days when they all just lived a block away and calling ahead wasn't necessary. You just showed up, and if it wasn't a good time… well, you stayed anyway.<p>

Hence the nature of their rag-tag group: nothing was ever too personal and if anyone had a fight, it would blow over because they were a family, and in Matt's case he often times relied on the digidestined more than his own parents.

Pushing his thoughts aside, he strolled around the Izumi's kitchen while listening to the ringing phone of his last call.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Joe," he started casually while fumbling with a stray pen that lay next to the Izumi's shopping list, "think you can help us out today?"

"With what?" came the innocent question that caused Matt to raise an eyebrow.

"…What do you think?"

There was a pause that was too long for the blonde's liking before Joe exclaimed glumly, "Oh right!... _That. _Listen, uh, I shouldn't."

At the very least, he had been expecting an 'I can't.' The shouldn't irked him. "Why shouldn't you? You're supposed to help and pull your own weight around here."

"I don't think it's a good idea to be messing with this stuff," Joe explained, "We can let them sort it out themselves."

"…That's one idea. Or we could help like we always do." His response was deadpan.

The elder went on defending his opinion, "It's just that we don't have much time left anyway, and this sounds really dangerous."

Matt lost grip of the pen, and it toppled to the ground. "We're not even fighting! All we're doing today is talking to Gennai!"

"Which could lead to many more things that I don't want to be involved in."

Matt almost laughed at that. "Hate to break it to you, pal, but you're already involved."

"Well I don't want to be, and I never did," he said, his voice bordering on a whine. It reminded Matt of all of Joe's complaining on their first adventure.

The blonde reached down to pick up the pen and sighed to calm his growing annoyance with his difficult friend. "This will all be over soon enough, so can't you just help us until then, today?

There was another long pause. "…I shouldn't, Tai."

He tried to keep his voice calm and emotionless so as not to explode on Joe. "It's Matt."

"Whatever…" The word faded into silence.

A dial tone could be heard.

Matt slammed down the phone to let all of his frustration out. He kept an overall calm, if not slightly irritated, expression as he made his way back to Izzy's room.

He made it just in time to hear the tail end of a conversation him and Mimi were having.

"Mori showed up at the flower shop?" Izzy leaned forward in his computer chair, obviously very interested.

"Yep," Mimi replied surprisingly casually. She had gotten over the initial shock and found Izzy's questioning repetitive, but he wasn't done.

"What'd you do? What'd he do?"

She studied her nails. "Nothing, just talked, threatened, left, said he'd be back."

"He does that a lot," Matt cut in as he leaned on the wall next to the door.

Changing the subject, Izzy asked suspiciously, "You didn't say anything, did you?"

A look of horror spread over his friend's face. "Oh… oops" -Izzy's mouth grew wide and just before he could start yelling Matt snickered- "Relax, Iz, I know the drill. I didn't say anything."

Just like with reading the text messages, Izzy was convinced someone must have bugged the telephone. Matt thought he read too many conspiracy books.

The redhead was unamused but continued anyway. "How'd it go?"

"TK's coming, Sora's working, Joe _'shouldn't'_," he finished his recap bitterly. The other two took notice.

"Shouldn't?" Izzy questioned.

"Shouldn't," Matt repeated.

"Aren't we all supposed to help?" Mimi asked innocently.

"Yep," Matt responded with more bitterness taking over his voice, "but Joe's too good for us."

"What did he say?" Izzy asked. He didn't doubt his friend's words, but he wasn't above being biased.

The blonde's eyes hit the ceiling as he thought back to the conversation. "He said it was dangerous, and we shouldn't be involved."

"He always used to say stuff like that!"

Izzy sat back in his chair with a melancholy expression. "Precisely, Mimi, which is why it's easy to tell Joe's memory is going the fastest."

Matt looked to Izzy curiously who never changed his expression. "You really think it's the pill?"

"I know it is."

* * *

><p>"My feet hurt! Where's Palmon?"<p>

"Why? Gonna make her carry you, princess?"

"Be nice, Matt."

"I'm always nice. Joe's the one who's not nice."

Matt, Mimi, Izzy, and TK had been thrown out of a television not more than a couple yards from Gennai's hidden home. They had not run into their digimon and decided to head straight to their destination.

Despite traveling down it a million times, the stairway into the lake could still amaze them as the brightly colored fish swam around them and a humble cottage appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

They heard a worn but strong voice call out, "Hello, children!"

"Hey, Gennai," TK answered for the group. Years ago right after the memory wipe, they had all been furious with the old man, but now most of their resentment had faded. That is, except for one…

"What's going on around here?" Izzy jumped right into it as soon as they had all gathered in a circle, lounging around on Gennai's lawn. The sooner he could get away from this guy the better. "I've scanned, tracked, and analyzed, but I can't find any probable reason for all of these digimon to be acting up all of a sudden."

Gennai merely shrugged as though uninterested in the attacks. "That's what digimon do; they fight sometimes."

"But one of them went for Tai," Izzy pointed out, "They would only go after a human because they were ordered to."

Gennai waved the notion off. "They must have thought he was a foreigner trespassing."

"He's not exactly a foreigner," Izzy said with a pointed look to the man in a way that made the others feel like they missed something.

Gennai ignored the look and changed the subject. His previously dull demeanor turned interested and almost venomous. "I hear your pills are in affect."

"Yes, they are." His words came off as resentful; maybe they were supposed to be. Over the last few years, Izzy seemed to harbor something against Gennai. Sure, they had all been originally mad at him for not stopping the Memory Wipe, but with how much those two communicated it has to be something more.

"I hope the other kids won't mind your own personal decision too much."

Izzy froze up_. 'He wouldn't… Who am I kidding? He is.'_

"What's Gennai talking about, Izzy?" TK asked curiously looking to his friend who always had the answers.

"You mean, you kids, didn't know?" Gennai's smirk was fueled by pure joy and cruelty. "Izzy didn't take his little pill."

* * *

><p>TK and Ken's scene was the inspiration for this story, and I originally posted it as a one-shot titled "Help." This is the same scene as in Help but focused on TK instead of Ken. The same things happen though; most of the dialogue is word for word. I hope people don't think I was lazy for doing that. There was just no point in changing the scene even if it was previously written.<p>

Thank you for reading!


	13. W2 Friday

Don't own Aspirin. In fact, I rarely ever have it when I need it.

Ironically, I skipped Writing Club today to write this.

I bring you a quick explanation of where everyone stands on the Izzy subject... and y'know the non-existent Takari.

* * *

><p><span>Friday<span>

Matt was right about one thing. It was still as hard as ever to keep secrets among the digidestined. News spread fast until all eight of them were well aware of what had happened, and in the true nature that was the digidestined, they all reacted differently.

Take for example Joe, Mimi, and Sora who all sat idly around the flower shop.

Joe did his best to keep his eye's attached to his textbook, but the scritch-scratch sound coming from a few feet away was too much to bare.

He looked up slightly. "Could you not do that?"

"No, actually I can't," Mimi huffed while pressing her nail file harder into her already sharpened nails.

Sora looked over at her friend in concern. "I know you're upset about Izzy, but if you keep that up you won't have any nails left."

Mimi studied her thumb nail that she could've sworn was an inch longer a moment ago. Despite that, she had bigger worries than her nails right now. She denied, "I'm not upset about Izzy. I don't care that he lied to me. He can do whatever he wants."

"Mi-"

"I'm not upset!" she blurted and furiously filed her thumb again.

Sora merely sighed. "It's alright, Mimi. I'm mad too. He shouldn't have done that without telling us. What do you think, Joe?"

There was no response as the doctor-to-be had his head jammed in between two pages of his textbook.

"Joe!" Sora tried again.

His head shot up, and he appeared unaware of his surroundings and shocked to be sitting there.

"Joe, have you been listening?" Mimi asked indignantly.

"To what? Your senseless drama," he deadpanned.

"Well this is kinda important drama…" Sora defended with a worried expression as she examined her elder friend. "Are you alright?"

"Of course," he assured, "I just don't see the importance of this whole… Digital thing."

The redhead cocked her head. "Huh?"

"Yeah," he continued while fumbling with the edge of his textbook. "It just seems that there are more important things like studying and college, not that you would know anything about that."

Sora narrowed her eyes dangerously, a sure sign Joe shouldn't press the college issue any further. "You know I'm only taking a year off."

"Yeah," he breathed, "A year where everyone else is getting ahead, a year everyone else isn't spending chasing scary monsters and worrying about childhood friends."

"Izzy's still our friend now," Mimi reminded.

Before Joe got a chance to respond, Sora cut him off. "I think you've said enough today."

He glanced at her but said it anyway, "None of us will be friends soon."

* * *

><p>Matt dragged his poor form and throbbing head into his dorm. After a long day of classes, he was ready to kick back and take some Aspirin before having to start his long night of homework.<p>

He accidentally slammed the door behind him causing a new wave of pain to come to his sensitive head. He threw his bag in the corner and flopped down onto his bed all without noticing a certain bushy-haired brunette watching the scene in curiosity from their desk.

Tai placed his pencil that was dull from copying down information next to his textbook before spinning the chair around to Matt, or rather the back of his head since his face was buried in the sheets.

"You've got a headache from school or the Digital World?" Tai questioned.

Matt groaned slightly then informed, "The Digital World doesn't ask me to do unspeakable things with triangles. It's just a stupid polygon. It's not that special! It doesn't need a whole class devoted to it."

"You know who gives me a headache?" Tai said suggestively. The other didn't respond so he continued, "Izzy."

"Why?" Matt asked obliviously now sitting up and rubbing his temples but with no avail.

The brunette squinted his eyes slightly. "Uh hello, you were there. He didn't take the pill."

"Oh that," Matt said dismissively adjusting himself slightly on the bed to look over at his friend. "It was his pill. If he didn't take it, he probably knows what he's doing."

Of all the reactions, Tai was not expecting that. "You're telling me you're not mad at all? Don't feel betrayed? Hurt? Anything?"

The blonde only shrugged. "Not really."

The other folded his arms. "Well I do."

Matt sighed then asked, "Shouldn't we 'feel betrayed' by you too?"

"Why?"

"You knew he didn't take it, but you didn't tell us. You were both keeping secrets," the blonde argued.

Tai blinked. "Yeah but his was… and I mean, I, uh… never thought about it like that." He scratched the back of his head thoughtfully while Matt began rummaging through his nightstand for Aspirin.

* * *

><p>TK was panicking big time. Kari had been avoiding him all day in the hallways, at lunch, and she even went as far as to not sit by him in Health and take the seat over by Davis. This gave enough time for the teenager to let his imagination run wild, but he always ended up with the same conclusion: she was mad about the pill.<p>

Right after school, he finally caught up to Kari at her locker.

She set some books on her neatly organized shelf in an eerily calm way that didn't match her avoidance of him.

"Um hi?" TK tried. She glanced up for a moment before going back to her books.

"Hi," she responded. He took that as a good sign.

"So-"

"You found out Izzy was the one who didn't take the pill and not me," Kari finished for him. He looked sheepish, but she stayed calm, even a little on the peppy side.

TK rubbed the back of his neck briefly. "Yes, and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have accused you of that. Now can you stop avoiding me?"

She tilted her head in surprise. "I'm not avoiding you; I've just been spending time with Davis."

"Why?" he asked afraid she was trying to recruit him again.

"Well," she began unable to meet his eyes, "We've got a date tonight."

TK froze. He was sure he'd heard her wrong, but her next words confirmed it.

She explained, "I didn't think you'd mind considering you think I'm a monster who lies to her friends and doesn't keep promises."

_'Ouch, way to twist my words,'_ He thought. He wasn't really sure how to react to that. He shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, but he was much more concerned about her date with Davis. It wasn't that they'd been anything more than friends, but the whole thing still made him queasy and full of jealousy.

Eventually he got out, "I never said that."

Her answer was still eerily calm.

"You didn't have to." And with that, Kari turned and walked down the hallway leaving TK dumbfounded.

* * *

><p>"Gennai, we need to talk."<p>

The old man caught sight of the serious boy standing in the doorway to his library. "Izzy, isn't this a… surprise."

"Yeah right, you probably already knew I was coming," he spat then entered the room without being invited. "What are you up to?"

"What ever do you mean?"

"You know what I'm talking about!" The redhead practically shouted, "Are you trying to turn everyone against me? Is that it? I know you don't approve of the pill but-"

"Don't approve?" Gennai chuckled darkly before reminding, "You know that pill would ruin everything for the sovereigns."

Izzy glared at him. "That was the point." Gennai turned and began shuffling through one of his book shelves. The other continued talking to his back. "I needed to save them! What the sovereigns are doing is-"

"I would think before finishing that sentence," Gennai warned, "They are Gods. Don't put it above them to be listening in right now."

"You think I care?" he questioned. "What they're planning on doing is unbelievable, a disgrace to know what they've planned for humans who have saved their world _twice_."

"Oh come now, Izzy," Gennai reasoned. He had turned back around now and was facing him. "Think of it as… saving the Digital World just one more time."

Izzy muttered solemnly, "But at what cost?"

* * *

><p>Now what could Izzy and Gennai be talking about?<p>

I didn't have Kari go out with Davis to start a shipping war or anything (which wouldn't happen since this isn't a romance fic). I wanted something to strain her and TK's relationship, and I didn't want to bring in this random OC to do it.

Thank you for reading! :)


	14. W2 Saturday

Saturday

"We'll walk around 'til we stumble into the bad guys! Come on, it'll be just like old times!"- Tai took a look around at his friends, all either glaring at or completely ignoring one another- "…Kinda."

After discussing things with Matt yesterday, he decided what the group needed now was a reunion. Despite recent events, the group hadn't been pulled any closer together, and if they were expected to deal with a new Digital problem, that had to change.

That's why Tai called everyone to meet near the edge of File Island, in the wooded area, so that they could figure things out together.

The majority having not been to the Digital World in quite some time, the reunion between the humans and their digimon was very heartfelt and joyous, not to say there was no hesitation before the partners fully embraced one another, but the digimon weren't nearly as tense as the humans were, and the partners quickly fell into their old routines.

The digimon were taken aback by the thick, troubled aura of the humans while they were surprised by their partner's rugged and weary demeanors from all of their recent battling. None the less, both groups didn't bring attention to these things. Instead, they focused on Tai's proposition and the reason they were gathered there.

Izzy was the first to voice his doubt. "Tai, I really don't think that's a reliable way to find the source of the attacks."

Izzy couldn't tell you why he didn't just inform the others of the sovereigns' part in this whole charade and his suspicions that they also had something to do with the attacks. Maybe it was because he didn't have proof or didn't want to anger anyone else with information he had previously kept from them, either way he kept his mouth shut.

"Reliable's not his thing now is it?" Gomamon joked lightheartedly while nudging Joe. His partner was dumbfounded as to why reliability had anything to do with him. After that, Gomamon dawned a downcast expression. With no knowledge of the pill, he was unaware as to why Joe was so distant and forgetful.

"No one asked you, Izzy," Mimi blurted causing more than a few heads to turn in her direction.

"What's with all of you?" Gatomon whispered to her partner. "You all are more wound up then a cat trapped between a dog and a hard place."

Kari silently watched the boy across the circle who was quietly conversing with Patamon. "…Things have changed."

Her words came out louder than intended, and Matt muttered sarcastically, "No kidding," earning him a disapproving look from his girlfriend who desperately wanted to deny how right he was.

"Do you think all of us together is going to help anything?" Sora asked carefully. She wanted to believe all the group needed to do was talk, but it was more likely they needed to have time to cool down.

Matt grimaced. "No but at least he's trying." He glanced at Tai who had just stood up.

The brunette stood tall and addressed his team with a confidence that he hoped came off as genuine. "Trust me; it'll be just like before! Now Izzy, type mumbo-jumbo into your computer, Matt, put your hands in your pockets, and Mimi, start talking and don't ever stop."

"I did not always keep my hands in my pockets!" Matt objected while slowly sliding the hand that wasn't around Sora's shoulders out of his jeans pocket.

Sora raised an eyebrow but continued grinning. "Yeah right, you liar."

He smiled slightly and helped her off the ground as everyone else began to stand up. Reluctantly, the group headed in a random direction Tai had pointed to.

Izzy, with Tentomon tagging along, caught up to the goggle-head at the head of the group. His curiosity getting the best of him, he asked, "Why are you talking to me again? Aren't you mad?"

"Oh I'm mad," Tai confirmed though his voice didn't show it. "But keeping the group together right now is more important than your betrayal."

Izzy wanted to cringe at how casually the other could use that word. Tai continued, "Besides I think _my_ opinion of you is the least of your worries." Tai's eyes led Izzy to Mimi who was only partly focused on Palmon's chipper rambling.

The redhead was just about to comment when Biyomon shouted above their heads, "Look over there!"

Needless to say, a hostile digimon could be seen not far away, an angel digimon that wielded a sword and appeared to be waiting for them to come to her.

"Darcmon," Patamon informed from atop TK's head. "She's not that tough, but I'd watch out if it's close combat."

A concentrated scowl crept its way onto Izzy's face. Angel type digimon were always rare, and it was odd to find one hanging around File Island. Tai on the other hand, jumped into action.

He ordered, "A few of us can fight. The others can keep searching for clues." There were a few nods of agreement then he rattled off, "Me, Kari, Sora, and Mimi will deal with the sword lady. The rest of you go on."

The group split off in their separate directions but not without a quick comment from Matt: "Splitting up, rushing into things. Now _this_ is the good old days."

* * *

><p>000<p>

"Are we ever going to stop walking?"

"No."

The answer to Joe's question came from both Matt and TK as Izzy was too busy fussing over his laptop.

Matt observed, "I'm pretty sure our first trip here was five percent resting, ten percent fighting, and eighty-five percent walking."

"Do you remember any of that?" TK asked Joe hopefully.

"Maybe…." Images came to his mind of miss-matched foliage, furry beasts, and gleeful laughter, but none of them fit together into one solid thought or memory. Over the last couple weeks, Joe had honestly been trying to recall information about his so-called friends and this digital world, but the more he reached into his mind the more the memories escaped him, almost like they were running from him. He knew there was something to remember, he just didn't know what something was. All this recall had done was cause him frustration and guilt for not being there for the others.

"Hey, I'm going to do a quick scan of the area to get are bearings," Izzy informed. The group stopped, and the redhead propped his laptop onto a somewhat flat rock. All of the digimon gathered around him as Joe sat off to the side, uninterested in seeing the map.

TK took a seat leaned against a nearby tree. He was doing his best not to focus on the negative, in other words the pill, the attacks, or Kari which was hard to do when your occasionally overbearing brother decides to have a talk.

"Alright, what happened?" Matt started casually as he took a seat on the dusty ground.

"What do you mean?"

The elder merely gave him a sideways glance that caused TK to roll his eyes. Matt just always had to know when something was wrong.

"You know how Kari was mad at me?" TK began tentatively.

"Yep."

He winced. "I kind of accused her of not taking the pill before we knew it was Izzy."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Kind of?"

"Well I did," TK corrected, "but I didn't mean to!"

The elder scratched his head. This was by no means a good thing but could be easily solved. "Well now you know it wasn't her and can apologize for how completely wrong you were."

"Not exactly." His eyes never left his twiddling thumbs. "She won't talk to me and went on a date with Davis yesterday."

Matt blinked. "Motomiya?"

His brother nodded, and Matt had to hold in laughter as he thought back on that boy's failed attempts with Kari. "…Why?"

TK shrugged. "To get back at me I guess."

Matt nodded knowingly. "So you're jealous. Is it because you like her or she's your friend?"

TK's head shot up, eyes wide. "What? I'm not jealous! I never said that. We're not- we're only friends."

"So you like her," His older brother concluded, and he knew there was no use in protesting no matter how wrong Matt was. Matt continued, "It was a date. It's not a binding contract. By tomorrow she'll realize it's _Davis _and never go out with him again."

TK sighed deeply. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

He smirked. "Don't be so surprised."

A beam of light and feathers came shooting in between the brothers, narrowly evading TK's shoulder.

After a few astonished seconds, TK asked, "Can I be surprised now?"

The two sprang up as both of their digimon partners rushed over to them. Joe, visibly awestruck and terrified, stared upward while Izzy's gaze continuously shifted from his laptop to the sky above.

Floating above the group was none other than what appeared to be an Angemon if he weren't missing a few wings and had a pink ribbon wrapped around him.

"That's Piddomon, a champion level" Patamon explained. "Mind if I take this one?"

No one objected since the little orange digimon was the most logical choice. He knew how a creature like this fights and with his most likely superior experience could take him down easily.

"I'd say digivolve to Magnaangemon just to be safe," TK suggested, and Patamon happily obliged.

A few words and a flashy light show later, Magnaangemon flew into the sky ready to fight.

"Fire feather!" called Piddomon as feathers coiled around a string of fire came spewing out of its hands.

Magnaangemon evaded the attack, but Piddomon didn't let up.

"Fire feather! Fire feather!" The digimon kept attacking paying no mind to quality or accuracy. The fire went everywhere. Magnaangemon would've been worried about it catching onto the trees or the people below if he weren't more worried about it catching onto himself.

'_If he'd let up for a minute I could get on the offense.' _He flew the equivalent of a few leaps back as he hauled his golden rod behind his head.

"Angel rod!" He hurtled his rod at his fellow angel digimon. Luckily, Piddomon had been so busy shooting fire he didn't have time to move. The rod hit him square in the chest bringing out a short cry of pain.

"No defense is not a very good strategy," Magnaangemon taunted while catching his rod which seemed to only anger the other digimon more.

"Fire feather!"

Magnaangemon flew to the left. "Is that all you can do? Is that all he can do?" he called down to the others.

Izzy promptly informed, "That and move really fast, but he's not the evading kind and judging by the distance doesn't want to fight close combat."

"Hmm…" Magnaangemon flew towards Piddomon who swiftly flew back. "What are you, scared?" He bolted forward.

"Piddo speed!" Piddomon went flying away at twice the speed the other digimon moved.

Magnaangemon pulled out his sword. "Get over here and fight like a Mon!"

From below, Matt rolled his eyes. "Yeah because that always works. 'Come here, so I can hit you with my sword!'"

Despite all logic, Piddomon did fly over. It seemed his pride or temper got the better of him. He blindly charged at Magnaangemon who instead of using the sword fought with brute force. The two slammed into one another, throwing a few punches here or there. It was obvious Magnaangemon was the better fighter, but Piddomon wasn't through yet.

"Fire feather!" The attack missed horribly and shot at the ground below.

"Move, watch out!" Matt shoved Joe out of the way as the attack came down almost directly where he once stood. Joe stumbled to the ground and looked at the scorched ground in awe.

"Excalibur!" Magnaangemon stabbed at the other digimon with its sword and slashed him right in the chest.

Piddomon yelped, "Piddo speed!" and fled the scene instantly.

Magnaangemon dedigivolved with a less than amused look. "He left? He must never fight if he thinks that was bad!" Patamon returned to TK's arms who assured him he was just glad he was alright.

Joe, awestruck, attempted to get back up off the ground. So this was what he'd forgotten?

Matt took a deep breath giving himself time to let his blood pressure drop. He breathed, "Joe, you've gotta pay attention."

"I was paying attention!" He protested while slowly regaining his footing. "What was that?"

The blonde was two seconds away from making a snide remark before realizing the other was truthfully oblivious.

Instead he carefully explained, "That was a fight because that digimon attacked us."

"Why would it do that?" He asked incredulously.

"That's what I want to know." Matt looked to Izzy hoping he had come up with some sort of answer.

The redhead shook his head in as he typed a few notes onto his laptop. "Nothing yet although I do have a theory. There's been a pattern with the attacks."

"You mean _this_ happens repeatedly?" Joe screeched incredulously. He couldn't handle the danger surrounding them. It seemed so unnecessary.

"Joe, we've done this a million times," TK informed with obvious pity for his forgetful friend.

"How am I supposed to know that?" He spat his words to the younger who took a step back in pure shock. He couldn't recall Joe ever snapping at him before.

"Hey! Guys, we're here!"

The four boys turned to see Tai, Sora, Kari, and Mimi walking their way with digimon in tow. Demonstrated by Tai's wide grin, they had easily defeated the Darcmon.

There were a few hellos (and a couple noticeable lacks of hellos) as the two groups morphed back into one. Once that was done, Izzy spoke up for the others' attention, "Since we're all here, I'd like to inform every one of a few things I've discovered."

"So now you'll tell us everything?" Those harsh words from Mimi pretty much silenced any side conversations that were going on.

Izzy cleared his throat to help him successfully ignore the comment. "As you may have noticed, Darcmon as well as the digimon my group ran into, Piddomon, were both angel digimon. Whereas before the attacking digimon appeared simply random, today there's a pattern, a connection."

There was a silence where some of them had nothing to say while others refused to talk because it was Izzy. Finally TK questioned, "You think the angel digimon are behind all this?"

"All of them? No, like the ones we saw today, most are simply cronies or decoys, but I think one of the higher ranking angel digimon must be involved, like Cherubimon or-"

"How can you all listen to him?" Mimi interrupted.

Izzy placed his hands to his hips. He was fed up with everyone going against him. He explained haughtily, "Because, Mimi, I actually know what I'm talking about."

"Well maybe we'd know what you were talking about if you told us stuff and didn't keep secrets like we're some snot-nosed kids who can't handle it!" She said just as haughtily.

The redhead took a step closer to the girl pushing everyone else around them to the back of his mind. "I have my reasons."

"Well why don't you tell us?" She growled while leaning in towards him.

"I'm trying to protect you!" Izzy practically shouted in her face, but she never flinched.

"I don't need protected!" She yelled back. "I can take care of myself."

His voice descended to a low volume and his words came out in dangerous hisses. "You don't understand. I did what was necessary."

She scoffed, "Lying to your friends is necessary? Sorry, I must have missed something!"

Tai took a step towards the two but didn't dare come between them. "Right, we're all friends, so you both need to stop."

"You all don't act like friends," Joe observed watching the group with a critical eye. "It's like this world is the only thing connecting you. Once it's gone, well…" He nodded to Izzy and Mimi.

"And whose fault is that?" Mimi spat. "Whose fault is it that we're losing all our memories? Each other? Our partners?" Her and Izzy's eyes stayed locked.

Tentomon asked curiously, "Izzy, what is she talking about?"

The other digimon turned to their partners searching for the same answer, but the humans stayed quite out of guilt and shame. Their partners still didn't know about the pill.

"Nothing, Tentomon," Izzy lied. His voice stayed as harsh as when he was talking to Mimi.

As soon as those words left his lips, a soft hand whipped against his cheek leaving an undesirable sting. A shock set in as he brought his hand up.

"And after all this, you're still a liar," Mimi whispered. She dashed in the direction of the nearest TV, and he was too stunned to try and stop her.

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading!<p> 


	15. W2 Sunday

Not a long chapter but still an eventful one

* * *

><p><span>Sunday <span>

On one of his only days when he wasn't forced to be scrambling around early in the morning to get ready for class, Matt had intended on sleeping in for as long as possible then having a steaming cup of coffee followed by a relaxing afternoon of just him and his guitar.

Instead, Matt awoke to a frustration induced outcry and a phone crashing into the receiver. He sat up quickly, eyes darting around the room, now fully alert and half-expecting a digimon attack or some kind of danger, but his quite college dorm room's only disturbance was a big-haired brunette.

"What is everyone's problem?" Tai spat at the phone. He sat cross-legged on the floor with the phone balanced on his knee.

Matt blinked sleep out of his eyes while saying, "Maybe that it's too early?"

Tai turned, slightly startled to find his roommate awake. "No, that's not it. The _problem_ is that Kari won't talk to TK, Sora won't talk to Joe, Mimi and Sora won't talk to Izzy, Izzy won't talk to Mimi, and Joe put me on hold!"

Matt rubbed his eyes then staggered out of bed knowing he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. "You might want to add to that list."

"Why?"

He growled, "Because if you ever wake me up this early again I'll have to find a new roommate."

Tai rolled his eyes at his best friend's hollow threats. "Hey, did something happen to Joe? He won't talk to me except to rant about how dangerous this is and how we need to stop."

"Um, yeah," Matt started trying to bring his rested but now dulled mind to remember the events of yesterday. "He almost got hit by Piddomon's attack. Things went downhill from there."

"Oh…" Tai's mind immediately launched him into his memories of their first time in the Digital World. Joe was the most cautious, always thinking things were too dangerous or scary. It seemed he was reacting that way now, like it was his first time facing Digimon. Tai couldn't imagine going through that sort of panic and confusion the Digital World had caused the first time all over again.

He tightened his fists. "If this is what losing your memory is like it must really bite."

"Yeah…" Matt uttered. There really wasn't anything else to say. He'd been trying his best to deny, but the proof was right in front of him: they were all losing their memories. Their friendships were a ticking time bomb. These fights weren't going to cause them to drift away; they were just the prelude to completely forgetting one another.

Of course, Matt didn't want to bring that up this early in the morning, so instead he advised, "Let everyone cool off today and try to fix things tomorrow."

Tai turned his head away from his friend and reluctantly said, "Fine, but I'm going to fix this. I'm not giving up on this team that easy."

* * *

><p>TK breathed in the fresh spring air as he strolled along a sidewalk alongside the local park. He took in the scenery, cheery people, flourishing trees, a bright pallet of nature colors. Normally this would be quite soothing if his head wasn't pounding from all the pressing thoughts jumbled around in it.<p>

Images kept repeating of a beat up Patamon, Cody shutting the door behind him, Kari walking away back at her locker, Joe snapping at him. No matter how much he shut out the negative, it kept seeping back into his head which is exactly why he decided to take a walk to clear his head.

Again, the walk would be soothing if it weren't for his thoughts… or the soccer ball coming at his head.

"Heads up!"

TK held his hands up at just the right moment and snatched the ball out of the air only to be met by a sheepish looking Davis jogging towards him.

"Sorry," he said, "I was just dribbling to myself, and it got away from me."

"No problem," TK assured. Of all the people he could run into when he was trying not to think about anything digital, it had to be Davis.

"Anyway I was about to head home," the brunette explained pointing in the direction TK was going.

"So was I," TK informed.

"Cool!" Davis exclaimed cheerily, "Then let's go." He began walking down the sidewalk, soccer ball being tossed up and down in his hand.

For some reason, an amused smile found its way to the blonde. Davis had just assumed they knew each other well enough to walk together.

They went along casually, Davis blabbering on about something or other and TK not minding the company. The brunette changed topics quickly, and he must've talked about everything from soccer to Koi fish. It was only when he mentioned a certain someone that TK really got invested in the conversation.

"Hey, Kari's not your girl, is she?"

TK froze; he could feel his legs going numbing, but Davis hadn't noticed and kept walking, so TK quickly sped up to match his pace and as nonchalant as he could muster (which wasn't very) he answered, "No! Of course not, we're only friends!"

Davis, still as oblivious as ever, couldn't see past the other's bad poker face. "Alright, good because I didn't want any bad feelings about our date."

TK physically had to bite his tongue while Davis went on, "It didn't go that great. She seemed… disappointed. I don't know, like it wasn't what she was expecting."

He shrugged cluelessly, but TK knew why. Kari was expecting the old Davis, and no matter how alike this guy was to their old friend, he would never share the same memories or connections to him.

Realizing he'd never responded, TK said, "I'm sorry to hear that," but his words were hollow.

There were a few moments of silence that admittedly weren't that awkward or unwelcome. It was odd, like they were old friends.

Davis broke the silence, "I know how weird this is gonna sound, but you were in a dream I had."

This caught TK off guard. To say the very least, he was curious.

Davis nodded slightly and looked upwards as he attempted to recall it. "It was the night after working with you and Kari on that health project. I dreamt the three of us were in this city in the middle of a desert, and we were talking to this robot. There was an angel there too and a talking cat-"He cut himself of by shaking his head- "But it was stupid. It's not like something like that could happen. I probably just had too much pop before bed."

Davis laughed at the absurd dream, and TK tried to join him but was well aware of how fake his laugh must sound. What Davis described sounded exactly like when they ran into Andromon at Full Metal City. How could he possibly know that if his memory was erased?

"I'm going this way," Davis announced while pointing in the opposite direction TK was about to turn. "See you later, Dude."

TK gave a quick goodbye. His thoughts were still on the discovery of Davis's memory as he continued walking down the sidewalk. The dream couldn't possibly be a flaw in the Memory Wipe... No, no that was all it could be. There was no other explanation.

Only as the brunette morphed into the surrounding crowd did TK remember, so he spun around and called out, "Hey, why are you a junior in health class?"

Davis looked back slightly confused before laughing and shouting back, "I took a cooking class instead last year!"

"A cooking class," TK chuckled, "I wonder if his noodles are any good."

* * *

><p>This was getting old.<p>

Mori still refused to tell his wife about his job, or lack thereof, so he had to keep himself busy during the day being anywhere but home.

His leads: None; his connections: Zero; his case progress: Nada.

This was getting old.

That is until a familiar blue-haired man waltzed into the coffee shop Mori had currently stopped in for use of their Wi-Fi.

The man surveyed the small shop uncertainly before catching the investigator's eye. He then trotted over quickly, stumbling twice on the way, and took a seat opposite him without ever being invited.

"Can I help you?" Mori asked suspiciously to which the man only nodded.

"Yes, my name is Joe Kido. A week or so ago you brought me and some… associates in for questioning."

Mori's eyes widened. That was where he knew the blue-haired man from! He was one of the kids with monsters.

Joe rubbed the back of his neck nervously and reminded himself that what he was doing is for the best. He needed to keep the others out of danger and away from that other world. "What we told you before, it wasn't everything. Actually it wasn't anything."

"Oh?" Mori inquired trying not to sound as interested or excited as he was at this possible new development.

"I'll tell you everything," he started, "as long as you promise to stop those monsters."

Mori nodded, a smirk creeping onto his face. "But of course."

Joe sighed in relief. A burden was about to be lifted from his shoulders. "This monster business started eight years ago at summer camp…"

* * *

><p>Oh Joe… Thanks for reading!<p> 


	16. W3 Monday

Sometime last week I was out and about with my mom and spent the time explaining Fullmetal Alchemist, one of my original stories, and this story. She doesn't know anything about Digimon, so my explanation of this story sounded pretty lame: "So Izzy, he's like the smart guy, he makes this pill to save the others because there are like these Digi-gods who are gods of the Digital World which I didn't create. Those are already part of the show… but not the pill; that's my story!"

Anyway, onward...

* * *

><p><strong>Week Three<strong>

Monday

Things weren't going so well.

"Sorry we're late!" Tai apologized as he and Matt entered the Izumi's apartment. "We barely made the subway!"

"It's alright," Kari assured from her seat on the couch, "It's alright, Mimi's going to be a little late too."

TK piped, "Why didn't Joe take you guys?"

"He's being difficult," Matt replied simply not wanting to lodge his mind back into their ealier unsuccessful visit to the elder's dorm room.

Izzy sprang from his seat drawing everyone's attention. "Of course, the laptop's cord is in the other room!"

He promptly walked out of the room to retrieve his cord. Sora rolled her eyes as he left. "Joe's not the only one being difficult…"

Matt frowned. "Come on, Izzy's doing his best."

"Lying and keeping secrets is his best?" She snorted. "I'd hate to see him at his worst."

Matt narrowed his eyes as he finished taking off his jacket. "You know, _Mimi's_ the one who slapped him the other day."

"She had all the reason to," Sora said defensively. In fact she had reprimanded Mimi herself for that, but she was going to defend her best friend's actions.

"You think letting your emotions take over and resorting to violence is justified?" Matt countered.

"I recall it working for you before," Sora retorted, and if it hadn't been highly inappropriate for the time, Tai would've accompanied it with an 'Ooooooooooh snap.'

Matt's narrow eyes leaned more towards a glare. What was with everyone picking a fight? Even Sora?

Just then Izzy reentered the room completely oblivious to the close to fuming couple. He muttered computer babble to himself as he took his seat on the far side of the couch back.

Sora's glare had turned from Matt to Izzy as he entered the room. Matt took notice.

"Can I talk to you in the hallway for a second?" Matt asked with an eery calmness.

"Of course," Sora replied bluntly. They both went into the Izumi's hallway and out of earshot of the others.

"We're here for two minutes, and someone is already fighting!" Tai complained as he flopped down onto the couch between his sister and Izzy.

Unaware that he was the cause of the dispute , Izzy typed away on his computer for a few moments. The others, Tai, Kari, and TK, sat in silence waiting for him to be ready to start the questioning. When Izzy finally did speak, it wasn't what anyone was expecting.

"Trepidatious!" He yelled with his eyes wide and glued to the screen.

Tai leaned over his shoulder to see what had happened. On the screen was an email from Joe that he quickly skimmed. "What the hell?" Tai screeched much in the same fashion as Izzy.

Curious, TK rose from his seat on the ottoman and read the email from behind the couch. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What! He's joking, right?"

Kari blinked as she looked over at the three crowded around the laptop. "What's going on?"

Kari was shocked to find her brother's reply slightly shaky with fear. "Joe told that investigator about us… about _everything_."

She felt herself stiffen. "B-but, but what does that mean for us?"

"Nothing good." Izzy didn't move. For once, he wasn't multitasking on his laptop. He was frozen as all the possible outcomes and results rushed through his head. One thing was for sure: things kept getting worse.

"Why would he do that?" TK asked in a small voice. Joe must have a good reason for doing something like this; he has been acting odd lately.

"I don't know," Tai answered through gritted teeth as his fist tightened. Instant anger had come flooding into him. No matter how Joe was feeling, it couldn't have driven him to giving away their greatest secret, to revealing the Digital World. If Joe were here right now, Tai didn't know what he'd do.

"I'm here," a resentful voice announced.

All heads snapped in the direction of the door as it slowly creaked open and in came none other than the blue-haired man himself.

* * *

><p>Things were looking up.<p>

Benjamin Mori had a confession, pictures as proof, and a story that would surely get him his job back. No more sneaking behind his family's back, no more dread for his last paycheck. That was all behind him. He was back.

Mori proudly and surely strode into his old workplace through the familiar swinging front doors, past the forgetful secretary, around the busy employees, past the Unsolvable Pile that has saved his carreer. To think, this would all be his again.

Finally, he made it to his boss Mr. Raincheck's office where he found him hunched over some story looking fairly riled up.

Without looking up, he growled, "Crowson, this is the worst shit I've ever seen. You better rewrite this whole article. Ugh, now what am I going to do? I have a deadline, you know!"

Mori smirked as he took a seat on the other side of the desk. "You could always use my story for your deadline, sir."

Mr. Raincheck looked up bewildered and matter-of-factly reminded, "You were fired, Mori."

"True but not after this." He slapped his findings down on his boss's desk, but he didn't so much as glance at them.

"You shouldn't be here. Go find a new job! That's what I gave you this time to do! Not go lollygagging around for dumb stories!"

Mori firmly explained as he pushed the papers towards Mr. Raincheck, "Trust me, this isn't dumb; it's good."

"Trust you? I don't trust you! I fired you!" He was standing now and looking down upon his old employee.

"You can't do this! This story! I spent so much time… It was supposed to…"

Mori wouldn't meet his eyes. All this work, all this time, and his boss still saw him as nothing. But then again, without his boss he was nothing. With one last pathetic plea Mori said, "You can't do this to me! I'm an investigator!"

Mr. Raincheck shook his head pityingly. "No, you're not, Mori. You're just an obsessive man who needs to move on."

* * *

><p>As always, Joe's news brought to the group mixed reactions. Both Matt and TK felt pure pity for the guy, and after initially shouting at him and demanding a reason for betraying his friends, Matt defeatedly dropped his hostility and grumbled, "I can't even be mad at you because you have no idea what you did." Sora, being stubbornly angry with Izzy, did the same to Joe. Tai was also furious at first but knew he couldn't react that way; it would only turn the others against Joe when he was trying to keep everyone together. Kari was simply confused; having lost little memory herself, she didn't know how to relate to Joe or even whether or not his actions were justified. Upon arriving, Mimi was more than mad, and Tai was bracing himself in case she decided to slap someone again. Different than all of them though was Izzy who decided to take the logical approach which leads us to here and now after the tests:<p>

"It appears too dangerous to keep people around once they've lost so much memory."

A few looked up at Izzy in mild surprise, but the majority had already had the thought themselves.

"Besides the obvious," Izzy started with an unintentional glance at Joe, "I believe it's why everyone's fighting. They're forgetting things about each other, big or small, that brought them closer together, information and events that shaped our opinions and thoughts on each other and built up our friendships. Most of those times were spent in the Digital World which means…"

He didn't have to finish, and no one really wanted him to. After a few moments of silence where reality sunk in, he continued.

"Joe, Mimi, Matt, Sora, TK, Tai, and Kari," Izzy rattled off from his clipboard as he paced around the kitchen. "That's the order of whose memories are receding the quickest."

The eight let that sink in for a second… only a second.

"That explains a lot," Matt said bluntly as he leaned back in the Izumi's recliner.

"Huh?" Tai prompted.

"Just that Mimi's been freaking out, and Joe was freaking out before that… They're overreacting to the memory loss and compensating by pushing everyone away."

Mimi screeched from her spot on the ottoman for the chair Sora was on, "Overreacting? I'm losing my friends and precious memories, and you think I'm overreacting?"

He mused, "…Maybe that's not the right word but-" He shrugged- "close enough."

Mimi's eyes narrowed dangerously, but he hardly noticed. "I could say the same thing about you. You're right after me on that list."

"And I'm not freaking out," Matt added in his defense. "It's not like I'm forgetting the important things, just stupid stuff like birthdays and middle names."

"Stupid?" Sora piped from her spot on the edge of the chair (the farthest seat away from Matt). "You think that stuff is stupid?"

"Don't start," He begged already halfway into an eye roll. If it weren't for Izzy, this might have turned into part two of their spat.

"Prodigious! You're on to something, Matt!" The computer nerd typed furiously on his laptop leaving the others to watch in curiosity and confusion while he pulled up the records of the digidestined's answers to his weekly tests. He explained, "Everyone's forgetting different areas. Matt has forgotten little about events and creatures in the Digital World but a lot about the rest of us; Sora and Tai have forgotten most of their time with 02; on the contrary, TK is forgetting our first trip a lot easier than 02."

TK blinked. Perhaps that's why he kept aching more and more for the 02 team. In the past, true he had missed them, but Kari had been the one that hadn't moved on while he had. Yet lately he's been thinking about them more and more.

A few people leaned in to better see Izzy's laptop. Tai looked to the others and said, "See? This is why we all need to chill out and act like a team. So that we don't lose out friendships just because we're losing the Digital World."

TK took another look at Izzy's test results. _'You're wrong, Tai. I don't have _my_ team anymore.'_

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading and to those who have been reviewing!<p>

And may I just say that I'm more excited about the next chapter than any other, so you have something... special to look forward to.


	17. W3 Tuesday

Oh wow this was hard to write.

So there's actually violence in this chapter. I didn't describe it in detail since that'd be… *Shudders*

* * *

><p><span>Tuesday<span>

Tai ceased his pacing and faced his surrounding friends. Slowly he explained, "We're going to try this again. We're all heading into the Digital World, and this time we _will _figure out what's going on. Now why is that, Izzy?"

Izzy looked up from his laptop, startled at being addressed. "Oh you see, I have faith in my theory about an angel digimon being behind this, but my explanation had been-" a quick glance to Mimi- "interrupted the other day. Basically there are two high-ranking angel digimon I suspect, Cherubimon and Lucemon, so I successfully searched for and found their locations. Now all we have to do is figure out which one it is."

Tai clapped his hands together. "Right so three groups! We'll go me, TK, and Mimi then Sora, Matt, and Kari. Joe and Izzy can stay behind to monitor everything and in case a group needs back up."

"There's a slight problem with those groups," Matt pointed out.

Sora stated flatly while averting her eyes from the group, "I second that."

Tai's eyes traveled between the feuding couple. He sighed. "Alright, let's try me, Matt, and Joe then TK, Kari, and Mimi. Sora and Izzy stay behind."

Kari coughed slightly to get her brother's attention then firmly shook her head, rejecting the groups.

He bit his lower lip. Everyone just had to be difficult. "Me, Sora, Kari and Joe, Matt, TK. Mimi, you'll stay behind with-" He made eye contact with her glare.

"You're joking, right?" She asked incredulously.

"No, I'm not. Did I not give you all a 'we're a team' speech? These are the groups whether you like it or hate it!"

And hate it she did. The others went their respective ways leaving her alone with…

"Would you pass me my d-terminal?"

She was stubbornly unresponsive.

"Can you pass my d-terminal?" Izzy repeated a bit more forcefully. "…Mimi?"

"What?" she snarled.

He hesitated but still kept his attention on his computer. "I'm aware you're upset by the recent events but-"

"But what? It doesn't matter! I'll be out of your life soon, so why should you care?"

A long bout where the only sound was Izzy typing. He didn't know how to respond. Of course he cared, he made the pill because he cared about her and the others, but she wouldn't understand that.

"Why do I care?" Mimi whispered low enough that Izzy barely caught it over the click-clack of the keyboard.

He finally stopped typing but continued to face his computer, and she went on with a shaky voice, "I don't remember… I don't. That- that place on the other side of the computer, it-it's like a fairy tale. Like I hear all these stories about it, but I don't believe them, and I don't… feel them because I never lived them. Some princess in a far off land did, and I could never dream of having adventures like that, of m-meeting monsters… of having all those friends."

Izzy gulped. He couldn't face her because he just knew there were tears in her eyes. "But Mimi, you were that princess. Those stories are your adventures and your memory."

She shook her head dislodging a tear or two. "Not my memory."

"I'm sorry, Mimi," Izzy whispered now bringing down his volume and mood to match hers. He spun around in his chair to face her. She sat innocently on the floor with her head down. He put his hand to her chin and carefully directed her head up, so there eyes met. There was no more anger or frustration in her beautiful, brown orbs, just confusion and longing. Izzy knew it was time for him to be truthful, honesty being the only thing she'd wanted from him.

He took a deep breath and began, "I knew I had to create the pills ever since Gennai talked to me…"

* * *

><p>Joe, Matt, and TK's group walked in a fairly comfortable silence with a few words passing by now and again. Neither of the brothers were exceedingly angry with Joe, so this was probably the best group the eldest could have gotten. Honestly he still didn't know why he kept coming here with these people. Something drew him to them, told him that he needed to stick with them. Even if he barely knew what was going on and couldn't recall most of their names a lot of the time, he knew he belonged there… no matter how much everything in this world terrified him.<p>

It wasn't until Joe said something about his talk with Mori that really set Matt off.

"I'm really sorry."

"Are you?" Matt questioned as he abruptly stopped walking. "Look Joe, I get it. You're lost. You don't have a clue what's going on, and I get that, but don't pretend you're sorry. You can't be sorry when you don't even know what you did."

Joe hesitated as he tried to turn his thoughts into words. "But I'm sorry that I upset all of you."

Matt didn't speak for several moments. He kept his head averted from Joe. "If you could, would you take back telling Mori everything?"

"I..," Joe trailed off as he searched his mind for an answer that was anything besides the truth because he knew the truth would only upset him more. He eventually decided if he owed them, his supposed friends and teammates, anything it was honesty. "… No, I wouldn't."

Matt cleared his throat then kept walking forward as he threw over his shoulder, "Then you're not sorry so quit lying."

They walked in an uncomfortable silence after that with only TK speaking up every so often to give directions. Thankfully they eventually reached their desired destination.

"Lucemon should be right about here," TK announced as he checked the map on his d-terminal.

"I'll take a look around," Patamon informed as he left his perch on the boy's head to fly around the deserted area. The land was lifeless and barren like there had been something there, but it just up and left leaving behind a few pebbles and an unsettling breeze.

"Let's all do that," Gabumon suggested, and everyone spread out a bit. He nodded to Gomamon as his way of reassurance. The seal like digimon hesitated before nodding back.

Gomamon stepped away from his partner but took a long, heavy look at Joe, that is, what was left of him. They didn't click anymore. Not that they ever did start seeing eye to eye, but they still understood each other. Joe knew Gomamon better than he knew himself but now… that was gone. He didn't know why they were close or what they'd been through. Worst of all, he didn't get Gomamon's jokes! Not that he ever did… but he didn't get them in a way that made the joke all the more funny for both of them. Now it was just an awkward miscommunication.

Within moments of spreading out, the dirt and pebbles lying around were brewed together into a dust cloud of sorts effectively blinding everyone.

"Hey, Patamon!" TK called out.

"Over he-AUGH!" The small digimon was caught off as something covered his mouth. He tried to wind back for a boom bubble but was bound by a tight rope before he got the chance.

"Patamon, are you alright?"Gabumon asked as he covered his eyes, but something was grabbing at his paws and pulling him down.

For Joe, the world around him began to swirl as his focus relaxed, and his glasses slammed into the ground.

* * *

><p>"So the knockout gas worked?"<p>

"Yes, sir, very well."

"And you've captured the digimon, so they'll be of no use to these humans?"

"Yes, sir."

"Excellent."

Things came into focus as Joe blinked a couple times. He made to readjust his glasses before realizing his hands were cuffed together behind his back. Now alarmed and more aware, he checked his surroundings. He was in a rather large room, probably twice the size of his parent's apartment, but despite the size it was a very dreary and lifeless place with the exception of one decorative, red chair.

To his right was TK, sitting with his knees under him and looking around wildly as though he had also just woken up. Behind TK stood Piddomon, possibly the Piddomon that attacked Joe, but that isn't certain. He kept one hand firmly wrapped around TK's wrist shackles and the other on Matt's. He sat cross-legged on the other side of TK, and his gaze was firmly planted on one thing. Joe followed Matt's eyes all the way up to a creature who sat in an elegant chair raised above them.

The creature, presumably a digimon, towered over the rest of them partly because of his elevated chair and also because of his size. He looked like an angel much like Angemon but slightly larger and while half of his wings had the same brilliant white, the others were a deep black as was the majority of his clothing. There were touches of gold here and there, but the angel was basically and walking yin-yang sign except a lot more intimidating.

"I think that's what Patamon said Lucemon looks like," Joe overheard TK whisper. Matt must've asked him about the digimon.

Lucemon sat back in his chair that stood high above the floor everyone else was reduced to standing on. There was something about this digimon that could make anyone feel inferior in his presence, but he didn't do anything to cause that. He simply remained relaxed and outwardly confident.

Not even bothering to make eye contact, he casually said, "I hear you digidestined are aiming to leave this world, forget about it or something?"

TK looked up in shock. How had he known that? During his startled hesitation, Matt defiantly spat, "So what if we are? What's that got to do with you or any of these creeps who've been attacking us?"

He smirked, his first sign of any emotion besides dissonant calmness. "More than _you_ would ever understand."

Lucemon took a few menacing steps towards the three. He looked down upon each of them in turn and spoke airily as though his words didn't hold much weight. "You digidestined are facing an ultimatum of sorts. Either keep returning to the Digital World or die here right now."

"D-die? As in killed?" Joe stuttered now painstakingly aware of the situation he was in. He'd seen digimon in action and didn't doubt for a second this one couldn't hold true to his threat.

"Well I'm not going to wait around for you to die of old age, am I?" Joe shrunk under his gaze.

Lucemon's attention was taken away from Joe once Matt challenged, "Since all you evil guys are the same, I'm assuming you want to take over the Digital World, right? Wouldn't that be easier without us around? Why would you want us to stay?"

"I have my reasons," Lucemon stated simply as he delicately unsheathed his sword from its place at his side. "Now, would you like to return or die?"

With as much defiance and loathing he could muster, Matt informed, "In a couple of weeks, we're done with this place."

"So death," Lucemon clarified as he looked expectantly to TK who sat propped up on his knees between Matt and Joe.

The teen remained silent as he thought everything through. There was obviously a reason Lucemon wanted them to remain in the Digital World, but he didn't know what it could be. Maybe he thought if they escaped to their own world, they could always come back one day, and he wanted them to stay in this world where he could keep an eye on them. But then again why keep an eye on them when he could just kill them now? It didn't add up. There had to be something else going on. He finally looked Lucemon in the eye and proclaimed truthfully, "I'm leaving the Digital World."

Lucemon rolled his eyes muttering, "I swear all you humans are the same."

All attention went to Joe, the only one left to answer. To say the least he was quite nervous and had no idea why the others had just agreed to be killed. Don't they know what happens when you're killed? You die! There's no redoes or second chances! It's over! He didn't understand this world or why leaving or staying was such an issue, but he did know that he'd survived so far by sticking with his apparent friends. With one nerve-wracked glance to Matt and TK, Joe faltered, "Leaving."

Lucemon nodded shortly then his calm demeanor turned purposeful and wrathful. Matt felt Piddomon's grip on him stiffen and was about to say something when he was stopped by an ear-splitting scream.

TK flinched at the noise, but no matter how much he wanted to look away he couldn't. He was numb and frozen in shock, and he wouldn't have tried to move or speak even without Piddomon's grip on him.

Joe had keeled over in pain, gasping and clutching his midsection. From below him, a puddle of blood slowly began to spread out as Joe's gasps and coughs lessened. Lucemon stood over him with a demonic smirk.

The end of his sword, still shiny from under all the blood, stuck out from Joe's back.

"W-what the hell did you do?" Matt demanded still trying to sound tough despite how terrified he now was.

"He chose death," Lucemon explained simply, the smirk still present. "Piddomon, get these children out of here!"

"But aren't you gonna kill them too?" He asked. His eyes were on Joe, and despite not feeling any sympathy for the human he was definitely disturbed.

Lucemon shrugged and turned away from the Digidestined. "That's too easy."

* * *

><p>Matt grunted as his back slammed down onto the barren landscape. He rubbed it tenderly as he begrudgingly looked up at the shoot in the side of Lucemon's base they'd been dumped out through meanwhile TK scurried over to Joe's blood-spattered body.<p>

TK crouched down on his knees at Joe's side, begging him to be alright. The boy was quickly becoming hysterical, even going as far as shaking Joe's still warm body expecting it to wake him, but all it did was dirty his hands.

Matt unsteadily grabbed TK's shoulder knowing that for the sake of his little brother, he had to stay calm and rational. He focused all his energy on keeping his voice even. "TK, he's gone."

The younger began shaking his head wildly and calling out to Joe. "Joe, wake up! Matt's wrong! I know you're still here! Please wake up, Joe!"

Matt put his hand to TK's other shoulder and roughly jerked him down, so he laid on his back in the dirt, his older brother towering over him. Matt leaned in deathly close, but TK refused to meet his gaze.

"Look at me, Takeru," Matt ordered. His voice was strong and commanding. Any focus he had had on Joe vanished as he slipped into big brother mode.

For a moment, TK looked like he would push Matt away, but any strength or will he had ended along with Joe. He reluctantly looked into his brother's unreadable, ice blue eyes. Matt's grip tightened as he spoke. "Joe is dead. Nothing you do will change that."

TK didn't move, a million thoughts circled around in his head. He didn't know what to say or how to react. Joe was gone, someone actually died because of the Digital World… because of the darker powers surrounding it.

He sat up, and Matt backed up. TK's bloody hands formed tight fists. "I hate this place! Everyone dies! The sooner we leave the better!"

"TK…" Matt started but never got the opportunity to finish. Gabumon, Patamon, and Gomamon came tumbling out of the shoot awfully ruffled up. Instantly noticing his rage, Patamon flew over to his partner with a worried expression. Gabumon gave Matt a confused look, but he didn't know how to explain what had happened, so the blonde simply hung his head as Gomamon slowly and cautiously waddled over to his partner.

"Joe? But… This isn't Joe, right? He's all…" The digimon trailed off as he realized there was no way of denying it. Gomamon didn't speak after that; there was nothing to say, nothing that mattered anyway. Joe wouldn't hear it. He'd never hear Gomamon speak or cheer him on in fights or listen to his jokes. It was all over, and Gomamon, well aware of the lost connection between him and his partner, was too aware to deny.

For possibly the first time ever, Matt and TK watched a digimon- more specifically Gomamon, one of the cheeriest digimon ever- cry, whimper, and eventually bawl his eyes out.

* * *

><p>That was depressing even for me. Thanks for reading<p> 


	18. W3 Wednesday

So I've been sick and probably wasn't in my right mind while writing a majority of this (well I'm never in my right mind but to a greater extent).

I had written a one-shot for one of my other stories about Izzy dealing with a death before realizing I was already about to write something about him and a death in this… Eh, it's okay, they accomplish different things.

Yes, this will be sad, but it won't stay that way for long. Tragedy leads to action, yes?

Here it is. The only thing you can do the day after your friend dies…

* * *

><p><span>Wednesday<span>

Sora will never forget the broken look in TK's eye. Or Matt and Tai screaming at each other. Or the silent tears they were all hiding. She shuddered at the memory then inhaled sharply. She had to calm herself, had to get her mind off of it, but every time she closed her eyes she was launched into a flashback.

Tai had received a message on his d-terminal from Matt, and the next thing she could remember after that was returning to her world. All of them were frightened into a petrified silence expect Tai and Matt who handled the situation in the only way they could—arguing and yelling like there' s no tomorrow.

Turns out the television they went through led to the old middle school computer lab where Mr. Fujiyama just so happened to be working late. Suffice to say, he didn't react well. In fact, he called the police who took Joe's body and were so confused and taken off guard by the delusional and emotionally wrecked young adults that they didn't do anything with them… yet.

Sora shuddered at the thought. Any minute now they'd be after them, the kids who were caught with a dead body. They had the police and a new digimon on their tails. At a time like this, they really did have to stick together.

She frowned. They'd have to work on that. Her and Matt, Izzy and Mimi, TK and Kari, no one was getting along, but now that the world was against them the digidestined had to ban together. Like the always did.

She replaced her frown with a thoughtful grin. When the going gets tough, they run to each other, and she was determined to make sure that happens.

* * *

><p>Two whole bottles of soap lay discarded on the cold bathroom floor. His hands still felt dirty.<p>

Only when TK closed his eyes could he see his friends' panicked looks, opened his ears and heard Joe's last, scarring scream, but he constantly felt warm blood sliding across his hands, dripping down his arms.

He sniffed, blinked away the moisture in his eyes, and just kept scrubbing. His hands were red, his skin clearly irritated, but this was all he could do to keep his mind off of things. Of Joe…

Was this what it all came down to? The powers of darkness could throw a digidestined away like they were an old, decrepit shoe? That couldn't be it! They fought, they worked, they gave everything they had, and the moment they're ready to quit the world turns on them.

TK paused as he glanced up at his reflection in the mirror—puffy eyed and shaken.

The worst part is that there's no reset button, no magical entity can save Joe, and no matter how much he wanted it there was no chance for his friend.

There was no hope for Joe, so TK had nothing to cling to. There was no hope that they'd all make it out alright; they already failed. TK forcefully grabbed a towel to dry his hands, glaring at the harmless item like it was the source of all his agony.

Even if Joe's hope was gone, there was still the matter of revenge.

TK roughly threw the towel back onto the counter. _'This isn't over yet, Lucemon. I've still got more than two weeks left to make you pay.'_

* * *

><p>"Mom, please do I really have to go to school today?"<p>

"Hikari, you and your brother are walking on thin ice as it is. I wouldn't argue with me if I were you."

Silence. Tai knew his sister must be biting her tongue and trying not to cry. She's been crying buckets all night leaving him to do his best to comfort her and bottle up his own emotions.

He heard the door slam, and footsteps coming towards his old room where he lay with one leg hanging off the edge of the bed and an arm draped over his eyes.

He recognized his mom's voice. "Kari left for school. You're not missing any classes over at the college are you?"

Tai groaned. His mom meant well, but she wouldn't be forcing them to get back to their lives if she realized Joe was their close friend. All she knew was that her children got caught up in a murder scene (that they claimed to not be responsible for), and nothing justified that leaving her furious.

"Answer me," she ordered from the doorway.

He brought his arm up to uncover his eyes and squinted at his mom. He was missing Home Economics, but if he told her she'd make him go. Oh well, what's one more lie? "I'm not doing anything today."

She nodded. "Alright, I'm off to do a few errands. Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone."

Tai rolled his eyes as she exited. She didn't need to say that. He wasn't the little kid who always wandered into danger all the time.

_'No,'_ he thought darkly, _'you don't wander. You go sprinting towards it and drag everyone down with you.'_

He rolled over, so he was facing the wall. They say that in your final moments, your life flashes before your eyes. Tai never really gave that much thought until now because even if Joe's life didn't flash before his own eyes, it sure was circling around in Tai's head.

He recalled meeting Joe all those years ago back in summer camp. The lanky, blue haired boy had registered as nothing more than a nerd who needed to chill out. If he had the strength, Tai would've laughed because Joe still never loosened up.

Not to say he didn't change. He changed a lot; they all did. Joe went from a pessimistic nervous wreck to a confident, reliable friend… then the pill stepped in. He was terrified again albeit not as much as before, but Tai didn't believe for a second this wasn't still Joe, wasn't still willing to lay his life on the line for the team.

Tai winced. That wasn't quite the metaphor it used to be.

Sure, they were constantly in dangerous situations, but nothing ever happened. It was like since they were kids they had this impenetrable bubble around them that shut out the world, but now that they're older the bubble popped and Lucemon came strolling along.

He hated everything about this- feeling helpless, not being able to think straight, and probably having to force everyone not to give up. He wanted to give up. Joe was dead! One of their best friends, a digidestined! How could they return to the Digital World after that?

Tai kicked the wall in front of him because he knew that was exactly why they had to go back.

* * *

><p>Izzy's fingers dragged over the keyboard. Besides that his bedroom was deathly quiet. His mind processed everything and though he'd never admit it, he hid behind his logic in a limited state of denial.<p>

He knew Joe had been killed (despite never seeing the body) and that the police took his friends' names and for god knows what reason they didn't take them under custody leading him to also have a pretty good hunch that the police weren't done with them yet.

His thumb rolled across the keyboard forcefully. Why couldn't anyone just be direct with them? The police keep them in suspense, and Lucemon explains none of his motives! Ironically, Mori had been direct with them, but they never gave him a clue. Well, Joe did however many weeks later. Gee, why hadn't anyone contacted them about that yet? Izzy leaned back in his chair and thought pessimistically, _'Maybe they're all waiting to gang up on us, and both worlds will come crumbling down.'_

He watched his reflection in the computer screen thoughtfully. How long had it been off? He bent down to check the power cord and found it was never on.

He also recognized Joe was the reason he felt so numb and emotionless. Just like his computer he had shut down. As long as he kept thinking logically and shut out his emotions, everything would be okay.

An eerie chuckle escaped him. His emotions were what got them into this whole mess. If he hadn't made the pill, hadn't been so intent on saving them and keeping them in the dark about it…

No, no time for if. He had to think about the future. Mimi was right: he had to be honest and tell everyone.

After all, it was probably Joe's lack of knowledge that got him killed.

Izzy took one hand off the keyboard and ran it through his hair in a pathetic attempt to make his mind lose focus, but it was already rolling.

It's definitely all his fault his friend's dead. He could've gotten them away sooner, years ago. He was just so convinced if he didn't wipe their memories they would risk coming back at some point.

He checked his reflection again. For someone who was disconnected emotionally he sure looked upset.

He glared at the screen, down at the keyboard, then back at the world that lay beyond the computer screen. Izzy knew the others all too well. Now that they've started this adventure and they have someone to fight for they weren't going to quit, and he was right there with them. He'd do anything to atone his sins and make up for all of his bad decisions.

Finally he wasn't sure what Lucemon had to do with this whole thing, but with the others help, he was going to find out.

* * *

><p>A slow, emotional melody played out from his guitar. Matt strummed mindlessly, unsure of whether this was an actual song or not. His fingers slid up and down the chords telling him that they knew where they were going even if he didn't. His thoughts wandered to yesterday, and as the memories grew more vivid the weaker his melody became. Calming down TK… yelling at Tai… carrying Joe…<p>

Matt had stopped playing entirely. Once realizing, he angrily glared down at the instrument and slammed the strings so hard it was a miracle they didn't break. He kept playing, abusing the strings as the music picked up into less of a ballad and into a mish-mash of chords you'd hear in the back of Screamo music.

At that point, someone banged on the other side of the thin dorm room walls complaining about the sound. Matt glared at the white wall in front of him and played a few more notes out of spite before tossing his guitar up on his bed. He sat on the floor, eyes closed, finger tapping rhythmically to nothing.

He honestly couldn't remember the last time something had hindered him enough, so all he could do was sit in the dark and play guitar. He recalled spending days alone with his harmonica, but that was before the Digital World, before his team.

Before his friends…

Wow, how long did it take him to call them that? He had been afraid of letting anyone get too close to him or seeing through the wall he'd built up, and now he remembered why.

His finger stopped tapping.

Because when you let people in and let yourself care about them that inevitably leads to getting hurt. He opened his eyes slowly, mind reeling.

People always hurt you—a principle he used to live by that was circling back around. Think, the digidestined were the ones to change his mind but now they were enforcing the rule. The pill meant they'd all drift apart, and he'd get hurt just like he was now.

Matt delicately pressed a finger to his cheek. It was damp, and he looked at his now wet finger with confusion. He didn't remember crying, but that wasn't his biggest concern. For all he knew the tears could've began twenty four hours ago or only a few minutes.

An odd feeling of submission arose. Not many things brought this sort of reaction out of him. Only when he got hurt by someone on the inside.

He punched the blue carpet resolving to never let this happen again.

* * *

><p>Sora walked steadily down the hallway trying to focus on her steps rather than the matters at hand. Maybe checking on Mimi and caring for her at a time like this would help her deal with it as well.<p>

A trail of tissues leading into Mimi's bedroom all gathered into a giant pile in the corner; they surrounded the waist basket, but a rare number actually made it in. For once, the bed was made—sheets perfectly folded, pillow cases crisp, and an odd lack of a fuzzy, pink comforter. On the corner sat a simple slip of paper.

Sora, a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, shakily bent down to read the note on it, and as she did her heart skipped a beat:

_To whom it may concern,_

_ I have decided I'm heading back to the United States and continuing University. I can't stay here, and let something happen to me like what happened yesterday. That world is terrifying, and I have no business being there when I don't remember why I even bother with it._

_I just feel so useless here, and I've become a burden to you all. Tell my partner that I'm sorry. She always seemed so genuine and caring. And I'm sorry to the rest of you. That world must mean a lot to you, and if I could I'd help, but it's time for me to put myself first._

_Even if I don't know it, I know I loved all of you especially that blue haired boy because I've been crying buckets._

_ Maybe one day I'll find out why I was crying, and I'll see you all again._

_ Sincerely,_

_Mimi Tachikawa_

_P.S. Izzy, thank you for telling the truth._

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading<p> 


	19. W3 Thursday

School and final assignments/papers/tests have been ruling my life lately. Plus I've been story hopping, so instead of focusing on one story at a time I have a bunch with chapters that are half done… End of excuses.

* * *

><p><span>Thursday<span>

"Hey, Iz," Matt muttered shortly as he entered the apartment. With barely a glance at anyone he took a seat at the kitchen table.

Izzy nodded as he closed the door. "Right then we're only waiting on Sora." He strolled back over to his seat on the couch. He passed Kari who could only stare at her hands for fear of looking up at TK in the chair opposite her across the coffee table.

Tai leaned on the arm of the couch while tapping his foot. He was already getting restless. They didn't have time to talk when they should be back in the Digital World and actually making progress.

Finally Sora entered with a smile that failed to disguise her slumped shoulders and heavy steps. Matt raised an eyebrow, but Tai was the first to speak. "Sora, what's wrong?"

Her fake smile fell a bit however she still fought to keep it up as she took her seat in between Tai and Izzy on the couch. "I… have some bad news."

Matt snorted, "Well things can't get much worse."

She was taken aback by his insensitive comment but chose to ignore as she continued solemnly, "Mimi decided to return to the US."

"…_Now?_" Tai asked incredulously, but before she had a chance to respond Izzy giggled earning him stares from everyone in the room.

There was still a trace of laughter laced through his words as he dismissed, "That just can't be correct, Sora. Mimi isn't ignorant to what we're up against, and she's well aware we need all the help we can get." _'Besides,'_ he thought, _'I'm finally doing what she wanted. She couldn't have left me.'_

"Mimi's gone," she repeated, "But she left a letter on her bed that… that thanked you for telling the truth?"

"Oh…" That was the last thing she said to him? Thank you? He's about to explain everything, and she doesn't even stick around? Just _thanks _him?

The thought crossed everyone's mind, but no one dared to say it aloud. _"So we're down to six."_

Izzy took a deep breath, pushed his feelings to the back of his mind, and began to explain everything even though he didn't much see the point without Mimi. "Remember during the Memory Wipe before we were sent home Gennai asked to talk to me alone?"

Sora blinked, startled by the sudden topic change. "Not really…"

"Well he did, and I was given information that has been kept from the rest of you. You see there's a reason they left the eight of us with our memories intact."

"I thought it was because someone had to keep defending the Digital World," TK said.

"That's only partly true." Izzy paused and let his gaze fix on the coffee table in front of him. "As you all know, the eight of our crests contain a sizable amount of power, but that power doesn't come from the Digital World because the crests are inside of us. That means that the only way for the Digital World to use the power from our crests is through us."

"So no us, no power?" Tai clarified.

Izzy nodded. "The Sovereigns, the Digi-Gods, they feed off of the power and energy we contain and have become so dependent on it over the years that they needed to keep us around and coming back to the Digital World. That's why over the years there's been random attacks and such."

"Wait a minute," TK interrupted, "This whole time everything has just been to keep us going back, so we can be an energy source? What about our first adventure?"

The redhead paused. "Our first adventure was legitimate. That's how they discovered us. 02 on the other hand had more of a hidden agenda. It was an attempt to pass our crest powers along to younger kids because they believed we wouldn't keep returning. Obviously that didn't work considering the Sovereigns needed us to keep coming after the Memory Wipe and not them."

"That doesn't explain Lucemon or why digimon want to kill us if they need us as an energy source," Tai stated.

Izzy rubbed the back of his head. "Well um basically if we were to die in the Digital World our crest power would stay there, so they do want us to be killed there, but they would rather we keep coming back and defend them if there's a real threat like during our first adventure." Bitterly he continued, "Now that Gennai has informed them of my pill they are trying to kill us there before we leave for good."

"Wonderful," Matt muttered sarcastically before asking, "And if we leave now and don't ever return?"

"There's still Lucemon," Izzy answered, "He has to be an actual threat to the digimon because the Sovereigns would never work with a Demon Lord no matter how desperate they are to keep us around."

No one spoke as they all mulled over the new information. Finally TK rallied, "This doesn't change anything. We still have to get back in there and defeat Lucemon and maybe the Sovereigns too."

Tai cleared his throat. At least someone around here still had spirit. "TK's right. Come on, let's get a game plan and charge back in there."

"It's not that simple," Matt warned with what were his first words since the meeting began, "Why should going back now end any differently than going back before?"

"Because we know what we're dealing with."

"But we still don't know how to handle it!"

"Alright!" Sora interjected, "Let's figure out what we're going to do. We all have to stay calm and act like a team."

Matt leaned back in his chair and chuckled, "Some team we are…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tai challenged.

"You know what it means."

"No, I don't." Tai folded his arms. "Enlighten me."

Izzy cut in, "I agree with Tai. We need to get back to the Digital World as soon as possible."

"Whatever we do could we all just agree?" Sora asked hopelessly.

"Matt's the one being difficult," Tai breathed.

The aforementioned stood up. "Fine, let's say we do go there. What now? Walk around and try to find Lucemon again? Care to explain what happens when we find him, Tai?"

"Stop it! All of you!" Kari begged, "Look at yourselves, you're acting like kids! One of your best friends just… Joe's gone. We can't be fighting right now."

The air in the room stiffened at the mention of his name. Matt sat back down slowly, but Kari stood up. "Please tell me when we're all friends again." She walked out of the room, and the others couldn't find the words to speak.

After a few seconds TK stood up and said unsurely, "I'm uh going to go find her." With a quick glance to Tai who simply nodded, he exited leaving the older kids to silently dare one another to speak first.

This actually proved quite the challenge since the four left in the room proved to be particularly stubborn. Finally Tai rolled his eyes and remarked, "You know guys, it's a sad day when I have to be the mature one, so who wants to talk first? What happens next?"

Izzy readjusted himself. "Joe's funeral's tomorrow."

"Who told you that?" Sora asked quietly.

"His parents told my parents."

Tai suddenly became very interested in his twiddling thumbs. "D-do they know abou-"

"I have no idea," the redhead interrupted, "I don't know what the police told them, and I don't know why all of you haven't been taken under custody."

"We didn't do anything," Matt muttered.

"That's not how they see it," Sora said darkly, "We were there, and we don't exactly have a believable alibi."

That sunk in for a moment. They were just kids— no, young adults now— caught at the scene of a murder. Besides their spotless police records (Save Mori's little escapade), they didn't have anything to back them up.

Tai leaned back into the couch. "So, everyone, do we stay away or go to the funeral?"

Izzy shrugged. "It doesn't matter much either way. The police will come eventually."

Matt didn't sound too happy about it as he voiced, "We have to go to the funeral."

There was a nod in response from both Tai and Sora. This was Joe after all.

Tai clasped his hands together. "Right so we'll deal with our problems in the Real World while trying to figure out how to save the Digital World!… whoa, déjà vu. "

* * *

><p>TK pushed the front door shut and turned quickly ready to rush down the hallway only to be stopped by the sight of Kari sitting on the floor with her knees up to her chest.<p>

Before he could even ask she murmured, "I knew you would come after me. You always do."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"…No." She patted a spot on the wood floor next to her, and he sat down. She turned, so the side of her head rested on her knees. "You know how I said all that stuff about being friends?"

"Yeah," he confirmed.

"I haven't been a very good friend."

"No, you've just been… conflicted."

Despite herself, she chuckled. He continued, "I haven't been any better, probably worse. All of us..." He stopped upon seeing her sullen look.

"I can't believe they're fighting," Kari whispered.

"Haven't they been fighting for awhile?" he asked.

"It's different now," she insisted, "This isn't the time to push each other away. _That pill_ is already doing a good enough job of that. We need to stick together."

"Speaking of sticking together I've been thinking… maybe we should try getting 02 to help us again."

She looked up startled. "You want to go back? A-and bring them?"

He sighed. "Kari, we have to go back. We can't leave the Digital World like it is now. With Lucemon and all those digimon fighting it'll only get worse." She didn't respond, so he urged, "Come on, while everyone else is arguing we're actually going to do something!" He caught the apprehensive look in her eye as she turned away, "…or at least I am."

"TK…" she trailed off unsure of where her words were headed, "It's not that I don't want to help. I just- I don't know what's right. I always thought we needed the Digital World, that we had to hold onto it but now… It doesn't seem like the magical wonderland it used to be."

He blinked and leaned closer to her. "Since when has running from monsters, being lost, and eating mushrooms been considered a wonderland?"

Kari tightened her fists and looked up to meet his eyes. "Stop, you love the Digiworld just as much as I do! It's not because of the mushrooms; it's because of the digimon— our friends! – and the places like Primary Village and things like phone booths on the beach! It's being in a world that's so strange and wonderful that you couldn't have thought of it in your wildest dreams!"

A short pause as they broke eye contact. TK whispered so as not to shatter the silence, "Then why not save a place like that?"

She bit her lip. "Because everyone was right. Before the Memory Wipe, they said those monsters were dangerous, and we were just like them, and now with Joe… It is dangerous. I don't want anyone else to get hurt."

He took in a heavy breath and let it out slowly to give himself time to think before replying. "I'm sure we'll all be more careful, and I know the others don't want to jump back into the Digital World so soon but… we need to bring Joe justice then we'll be out of there for good. No more danger and no more worries, alright?"

Kari looked into his hopeful eyes and already knew what he was thinking. "But we'll need 02 to do it."

He nodded almost reluctantly well aware of how much she didn't want to drag their old friends into this.

A moment of hesitation before a quiet, "Alright then."

TK blinked. "Really?"

She nodded. "Tomorrow, we'll find Davis."

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><p>Cool so tommorow (haha I'm listening to that song by Avril Lavigne right now) is going to be a lot more busy than today. Trust me. By the way, am I the only one who thinks those new, blue review buttons look cooler? I'm not trying to get you to review or anything. I've just been thinking that for awhile now...<p>

Thanks for reading!


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